Infante Del Cielo: Secondo Viaggio
by WindmillQuill
Summary: Time is running out...and turning back for the tenth generation. Tsuna and the guardians request the help of the First Generation family to save their tutors.
1. Prologue

Hihi!

_Another_ idea dump... two more to go then I can focus on the stories as individuals.

I know the whole "going back to primo's time" theme is really overused and overwritten, but Pshhhh... I'm trying to make this one different.

A whole lot different.

* * *

><p>The boy woke up and rubbed the dust out of his fawn brown eyes, launching into a fit of coughing due to his parched throat.<p>

Then something caught his attention.

Around his neck was slung a small pouch along with a familiar orange glass pacifier, glowing faintly. Then he realized that he was swathed in a piece of brown straw-woven cloth like a cloak…like the bundle of an infant.

He stretched his arms and stopped short to look at his short arms and tiny, powerless hands.

How the desert looked beyond him looked like a endless spread of sand.

He patted his head of soft, brown tufts to confirm his suspicions, and rubbed his cheek up to the corner of his line of sight to find the flower stigma-shaped mark.

And then he remembered what had happened.

He stood up, startled, and let out a desperate cry that howled into the desert wind.

"REBORRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

* * *

><p>So... what do you thinkof this idea. You know who this person is right?<p>

Instead of the goal being simply to get back to the past, in this one the family requires the help of the first generation... and Tsuna here has a little bit of a memory loss caused by turning into an Arcobaleno.

But there's a reason. So if there's a story alert/ review/ favourite story by today then I'll continue.

EXTREMELY hurry!


	2. Direction

I

First off,

PSHHHHH. **(to Taira-keimei)** the first one was just to test the waters where the story was headed in a direction that people liked. I did say I'd only continue if it got a review on the same day,right? Thanks for reviewing, it makes it worth the time to write. Besides, you've been around, right? I'm wondering if there's even ANY KHR fic that hasn't been read by you.

**(to Corvino the VII)** Dear me, do I qualify for the frying-pan judgement?

and...the first chapter was a sampler... or a prologue... call it what you wish.\

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>t was a lie, right? Reborn wouldn't possibly betray him…right?<p>

Thoughts ran wildly about in Tsuna's little head as he walked for hours, ignoring his throbbing feet, or the slow feeling of nauseousness that started to envelop him.

The desert was overwhelmingly hot. Perspiration, fatigue and hunger were clouding up his vision.

But to think Reborn would've betrayed him to rid himself of the Arcobaleno's curse and force him to take his place…Nah, he shrugged it off. The heat must really be getting to him.

All in all, Tsuna couldn't remember what had happened before he woke up, with Uni/Yuni's mark on his cheek, and the body of a one-year-old baby. Not to mention, he had the sky pacifier.

He briefly wondered where the other guardians were.

Energy started to slowly drain out of him…

…and he collapsed into the sand, unable to move despite the searing sensation it caused on his skin.

He lay there, taking the rays of the sun, which the straw-cloak minimally protected him from.

It was awhile, until he closed his sand-irritated eyes, when he heard voices, felt as if something was blocking out the sun from his view…

"Oh my, what's a baby doing out here?" a few mutterings in Italian could be heard.

"Shh…bring him into the carriage and get him some water before the poor kid dies."

"Are you sure about this? What about our mission?"

"A life's more important."

* * *

><p>[Gokudera]<p>

Gokudera woke to find himself in a forest.

He felt like he had a severe headache.

What happened? he thought, scratching his head of silver hair, and paused.

He brought his hand out, and screamed. But it was deep, of course. Not like Tsuna's shrieking.

"N-ah! Nananokorewa? Did that stupid cow do something again?"

He patted the rest of his body to find that he had shrunk…and was only in his underpants. (If you need a visual reference, he looked just like he did when he was hit by the defective bazooka in one of the early episodes of KHR.)

"Oh, just great." He looked to his side and found a bundle, and unwrapped it to find a silver pouch… and a red, glowing glass pacifier, strung onto a black gothic chain which would have made a loose bracelet for anyone, but fit Gokudera's neck as he slid it over his head.

He pocketed the pouch and slung the white cloth from the bundle over him to make a cloak.

"Tch. I should set out to find the Juudaime."

He trudged on the grass for a while…until he reached a clearing. In front of him was a large wooden mansion, with radiant glass windows.

"That looks familiar…maybe the Juudaime is there."

Without further thought, he approached the building.

* * *

><p>[Mukuro&amp;Chrome]<p>

"…-kuro-sama. Mukuro-sama." a voice whispered, and Mukuro could faintly make out Nagi's face as she shook him gently until his eyes open.

"Chrome." he acknowledged. "Where are we?"

Chrome stared at him, a blush lighting up her chubby little cheeks. "That's- I don't know…"

Mukuro halted. Chrome was… a baby? And she had a violet cloth wrapped around her, a indigo pacifier and a fabric drawstring pouch on a string around her neck.

He stretched out his hand, and his red eye narrowed. "Oya,oya, Sawada Tsunayoshi seems to have gotten me involved in his business again."

"Should we find Boss and ask him why this-" she touched the indigo pacifier, "is here, Mukuro-sama?"

Mukuro looked at her for a moment, and agreed. After all, it wasn't everyday that Chrome suggested ideas of her own.

They walked out of the corner alley, as the light started to filter into his vision.

"Oh? This seems to be an olden-day Italian town." Mukuro then caught sight of a woman with long, flowing platinum hair talking to a man with a horsecart. She handed him something which seemed to be money and mounted the cart.

"Chrome, let's hitch a ride."

* * *

><p>[Yamamoto]<p>

Yamamoto woke up to find his eyes covered by blue fabric.

"Hmm?" he wondered sleepily and sat up. He had been sleeping, burying his face into the cloth of the blue bundle.

Curious, he opened it, to find the blue glass pacifier shining up at him, casting a faint light which the silver fabric pouch next to it reflected. Inside was also his Shigure Kintoki (which had shrunk down to his size so he didn't notice he was a baby)

"Haha," he laughed. "This must be part of that mafia game Tsuna was playing again."

"Since the Shigure Kintoki was in this bundle, this must be for me, right?" He deduced, sliding the chain with the pouch and pacifier around his neck and hugging the supposedly large cloth to him as he walked away from where he landed near the town fountain.

"Now, I should find the others to win the game!" he said purposefully, striding up slowly to a massive (well massive to him) bakery shop.

The clothes the adults wore were all pin-striped, sepia. brown or white vests/ dresses of the olden-day style.

"Hey." he greeted in Japanese.

The owners of the shop turned to him in surprise.

"What's a baby doing here?" one of them whispered in Italian.

Fortunately, Yamamoto caught on and quickly swapped it for Italian.

"Um, have you seen a boy with-" Yamamoto tried to recall the smatterings of Italian Gokudera had taught him unwillingly once. "like, spiky hair, and these serious eyes and these flames in his hands that go whoosh-whoosh?" He asked, gesturing about.

The couple looked even more surprised. A _baby _had spoken in fluent Italian.

"He must be talking about Vongola Primo." the lady whispered.

Yamamoto vaguely remembered Tsuna being addressed as this Vongola thing before.

"Yes, yes! He's my friend!" He said enthusiastically.

The couple gave him an odd look, but agreed to take him there.

* * *

><p>[Ryohei]<p>

Ryohei woke up and immediately started training, only noticing once that he had shrunk, but thought it was because of his weakening stamina that the distances seemed to be…longer.

"What is this? It may have something to do with SAWADA! I'll find him to the extreme!"

With that he ran off, coincidentally heading toward the Vongola mansion, the cloth from the bundle swinging on his shoulders as a towel to mop up the perspiration from his exercise. The yellow glass pacifier and pouch jingled around his neck.

"Alright! I shall go and ask the people in that house where he is!"

* * *

><p>[Lambo]<p>

Lambo barely changed at all, except for his body reverting back a year or two.

"Lambo-san's going to find Tsuna and rob him of his candy!"

Lambo scratched his head, the green glass pacifier and pouch nestled in his hair precariously.

Then he caught sight of a small infant running.

"Gyahahahaha! What's wrong with Turf-top? Did he shrink?"

Lambo followed Ryohei as closely as he could.

* * *

><p>[Hibari]<p>

Being sharp, Hibari immediately noticed that he had shrunk into the form of a baby.

"Hmph. This better not have something to do with that infant."

The unwrapped bundle lay before him. A note tucked inside read,

"Wear the chain. It will be of importance in the near future."

Hibari grunted in annoyance and wore the pacifier and pouch.

A carriage passed by the path that Hibari had landed near to, and the purple glass pacifier glowed brightly for a moment, but flickered out as soon as it came.

"Hmph." Hibari could've sworn he saw a familiar face in that carriage.

So he decided to follow the path in order to get to it again.

* * *

><p>I don't ususally like to say this...but for this story I really need you to review to know if you're still favourable with the flow. So please do! Bye.<p> 


	3. Gathering

Hi!

Questions, questions,questions.

**(to Bluelup28): questions answered by this fic. As for what happened, that will be revealed in chapter 4.**

I'm ignoring the Shimon arc cuz the vongola gear is too bulky for this fic. (just think about babies wearing 'em) So this takes place a while after the return to the future. Most of my fics are, anyway.

**(to xXxAnGeLFLoNnexXx):** well there's the general student-teacher pairing R27, but there's no romance here, MAYBE ElenaXDaemon, but the rest is just friendship/family. Like G27, G.59, so on and so forth. And thank you for checking out my other stories.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>He smelt this hazelnut smell which reminded him of the wood on his desk.<p>

Then he heard a voice.

"Tsuna-kun, what are you doing, sleeping over there?"

"Eh? Kyoko-chan…" he looked at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't you remember, Tsuna-kun?"

Tsuna shook his head slowly.

"We came to celebrate…your first birthday." her tone turned melancholy.

"Huh?" He said, and realized he was sleeping on the table, which was larger than him… and Kyoko-chan was smiling at him…and holding out a cupcake with one candle on it.

_"Happy first birthday, Tsuna-kun."_

* * *

><p>Tsuna woke up with a start, breathing heavily.<p>

"That was just a dream, thank god…" And then he froze.

He was sleeping…on a dark teak desk…

…Surrounded by men in black/ white suits.

"HIEEEEE!" he shrieked.

"Oh, he's awake!" one of them, in a strange suit with a black hat on his head, called enthusiastically.

"Ah, Juudaime! How are you feeling?" Gokudera cried, scrambling up the side of the desk to kneel by Tsuna's side.

"Gokudera-kun?" he said, confused. Then he noticed how the table and the men were huge…compared to them…

"Gokudera-kun, you too?"

Gokudera scowled for a moment. "Hai, Juudaime. Do you know what happened?"

Tsuna shook his small head. "No, I don't. I just woke up in the desert…and now I'm here…"

Then he realized all of the men were peering at them, crouching down a little.

And who they were.

"The first generation?" he cried in shock. "That means…we're in the past?"

"Oi, don't make such a fuss…you baby…or whatever you are." G rebuked in Italian. All of them were astounded that babies, who looked just over a year old, could talk fluently in Japanese.

"You ass…how dare you call the Juudaime…" Gokudera shouted in Italian, shaking his small fist threateningly (well, not so threatening if you consider the size)at G.

Tsuna quickly put his hands on Gokudera's shoulder in an attempt to pacify him.

"Calm down, Gokudera-kun. We have to be polite. They did save me after all…"

Tsuna wobbled a little as he tried to stand again. He was still a little dizzy after his brain was microwaved by the sun.

"Uhm, am I saying this right? Sorry for being so rude. We're very thankful." Tsuna stammered in Italian, giving a wobbly bow, which made his little spikes of brown hair flop a little.

G stared. And tried not to think about how that gesture was just so CUTE.

"You two are Japanese, right?" Asari said.

Tsuna nodded and Gokudera shook his head. "No, I'm Italian."

Asari laughed. "That would explain the colorful language you said in Italian earlier on."

* * *

><p>[Flashback]<p>

The carriage pulled to a stop in front of the mansion.

The Vongola Primo got out first, cradling a baby with spiky brown hair in his arms. Then five other guardians came out.

They strode into the mansion, wondering where the caretakers of the mansion were, until their butler hurried out.

"Primo, we've captured an…intruder!" he said, sweating nervously.

"How many?"

"One, sir."

"Who is it? From what family?"

"It's a baby…sir."

"A WHAT? And he broke in?" G yelled. The rest of the guardians looked equally surprised. Except for Alaude.

"Shhh…" Primo said, putting his finger on his lips and then pointing at the baby in his arms.

"Oh…if I may ask sir, who is this? Your son?" the butler asked politely.

"Of course he isn't! Don't say something so scandalous!" G said.

"But, the kid does bear more than a passing resemblance to you, Giotto." Asari pointed out. Even Alaude turned his sharp gaze to the sleeping boy.

"Giotto, what is the meaning of-" Giotto quickly cut Alaude off, who seemed annoyed by the interruption.

"I don't have a son and that's just ridiculous. Bartolo, take us to the intruder."

"Yes sir!"

They walked down the halls into one of the empty chambers in the mansion and opened the door.

A baby with silver hair turned around sharply. His eyebrows were furrowed over his storm green eyes. His face had an indignant expression on it and he scowled at his visitors. The red pacifier around his neck was glowing.

"When are you going to release me you sons of ( of course, he was speaking in Italian, so it came out as Figlio di) - Juudaime!"

The guardians were adequately surprised. Had a baby almost cursed at them in fluent Italian, and then swapped to Japanese?

"Oi, you guys are the first generation of the Vongola family, aren't you?"

They looked at each other, puzzled.

"I guess you could say so." Giotto said calmly.

"Put the Juudaime down! Juudaime!" The baby demanded, jumping up and down but not being able to reach the kid in the arms of the Primo.

"If I'm not wrong, Juudaime should stand for Tenth. I think he's referring to this kid, Giotto."

"You know him?" Giotto asked the baby.

"Of course! He's my boss!" the kid declared proudly.

The guardians didn't know whether to laugh it off as a joke or take him seriously.

* * *

><p>"Eh?" was all Tsuna could react with.<p>

"Yeah, we have no idea what's going on too!" Asari said cheerfully.

"What should we do with these kids, Alaude?" G asked.

"They're obviously not normal. Interrogation." Alaude said.

"Eh! NO! We're not enemies, Alaude-san!"

They all twitched.

"And, kid, would you like to explain how you know our names?" said G threateningly.

"HIEE!" Tsuna shrieked.

"Oi, back off!" Gokudera said, moving in position to shield Tsuna.

"TO THE EXTREME!" called a voice loudly from behind the wall.

"What's this now?" Lampo yawned.

Tsuna twitched. "That loud voice…it can't be…"

Giotto opened the door abruptly. Ryohei and Lambo stood by his side, Ryohei in his boxers and Lambo in his loose cow jumpsuit.

"Onii-san!"

"OH, SAWADA!" Ryohei greeted energetically. "I told you he was in here, Lambo!"

"What is the meaning of this?" Giotto questioned. "This kid broke down our front door."

"Onii-san, why'd you do that?"

"I was looking for you, but then they told me this wasn't an orphanage and wouldn't let me in, so I used Maximum Cannon on the door. Everything here looks extremely gigantic!"

"Gyahahaha! Tsuna and Ahodera shrunk!" Lambo mocked. The guardians took note of the words he used. _"Shrunk…hmmm…" _they all thought

Tsuna sighed. This was going to be a long day…

"Oh, I see the kid we picked up in the wasteland seems to have woken up." Giotto said, strolling over to Tsuna.

"How are you?" Giotto asked, knowing the kid could speak fluently.

"I'm fine, thank you, Giotto-san." Tsuna beamed wearily.

Giotto's eyes widened a little bit. "G, this kid…" He said, pointing a finger in Tsuna's face.

"-knows all our names, yes. And they speak Japanese and Italian." G finished.

Then Bartolo appeared in the doorway.

"Primo, sir, there's a baby fighting his way in."

"One brat after the other!" Lampo cried.

The glass pacifiers started to glow brighter.

"Erm…does this mean…"

"Where's your leader, herbivores?"

"It's Hibari-san!"

Hibari appeared in the doorway too, led in by a terrified maid.

* * *

><p>"….we weren't originally babies. We were 16, minus Lambo and Hibari-san. Lambo is five, and Hibari-san is a few years older than us. And well, that's all we remember." Tsuna finished.<p>

"So, you need a place to stay temporarily while you find out how to get your original forms back." Giotto concluded.

"Giotto!" G exclaimed.

"G, they don't seem to place too much of a threat. Besides, could you bear to throw them out? People might gossip too, saying we're abandoning our sons or something." he reasoned.

Well, Giotto was right. Looking down at the hopeful faces of the kids, and the well, cold or indignant expression on the others, he couldn't help but notice the similar traits. Oh well.

He sighed. "I swear, we're getting soft even for a vigilante group among the mafia."

Giotto quickly scolded the pink/red-haired man. "G! Don't mention the mafia in front of these kids."

Tsuna waved a small hand dismissively. "It's alright, Giotto-san. We already know of it. In fact, it's more than just knowledge of it."

Before anyone could question what Tsuna had meant by that, Bartolo arrived again with an announcement. Lady Elena was back.

* * *

><p>"Elena." they greeted, each giving her a quick peck on the cheek as a greeting.<p>

They looked at the pullcart parked by the mansion.

"But, why did you come back alone in a hired pullcart, Elena? Shouldn't Daemon have been there to pick you up?"

Elena gave a polite smile. "I shook him off after another of his unsuccessful confessions."

The guardians could only gape at her. _Poor Daemon_, they thought.

Then Elena's gaze landed on the babies that had followed the first generation family out.

"And these kids are?"

Before anyone could reply, purple mist started to gather over the head of the carriage, then it cleared, revealing two babies, one wearing a tiny Kokuyo Middle uniform (made from illusions, otherwise he was just in his boxers) and one in a purple cloak.

"Kufufufufufu, I found you, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Mukuro!" Elena could only stare at the exchange between the mysterious babies.

"Would you like to explain a few things? For one, what happened to us?"

"Uh, erm, about that… I don't really know."

"Should I torture you with an illusion to find out?"

"Don't you dare, you bastard!"

"Be quiet, before I bite all of you to death."

As if to stop the chaos from ensuing, a brown cart came down the path. It had a brown flag on it to signal that it belonged to villagers, not the mafia.

It came to a halt behind Elena's cart. The glass pacifiers seemed to shine even brighter with the arrival of the cart.

The drivers, a middle-aged couple whom Giotto knew to be running the town's bakery shop, climbed off the cart and gave a slight bow to the noble company.

"Greetings, Primo."

"No need to be so formal. What, may I ask, is your business here?" Giotto said, stepping forward.

The couple opened the cargo door to the cart and out hopped out Yamamoto.

"This baby said he was looking for you, sir."

"Oya, oya, another guardian has joined our ranks."

"Yamamoto!"

The tan-skinned baby, who had black spiky hair and a blue cloak, rushed over to the brown-cloaked kid's side.

"Tsuna! I'm lucky I asked the right people to help me find you."

The couple looked puzzled for a moment.

"You weren't looking for Vongola Primo?"

Yamamoto gave them a clueless look.

"Isn't Tsuna this Vongola thing?"

The Primo and his guardians turned their gazes onto Tsuna.

Tsuna exchanged glances with his guardians and gulped.

The situation just got more awkward.

* * *

><p>Oh, Yamamoto XD.<p>

So yeah, I think I just might upload the fourth chapter in three or four hours.

I'm also going to draw a picture/poster of the seven Arcobaleno!Guardians with Tsuna in the middle, because I figured it'd look cute. Update you on the details later.

Oh right, do check out my profile. I just updated it and linked some very interesting KHR videos there.

bye!


	4. Truth

Hihi!

Chapter of all truth, did Reborn betray them? is here.

**(to Alternative Angel):** hmmm...yeah I was reading the reviewer's fics (especially Flonne)and found out that it's an idea that's like, over and over again. But mine seems to be one of the few that ACTUALLY shrunk the kids. So Tsuna doesn't really need to worry about height difference now. And yes, it's cute! Which is why I'm drawing a wallpaper of it. Post it here when i have time.

**(to xXxAnGeLFLoNnExXx):** Yah, I read your fics and erhm...shall not comment on the Clockworks one...anyways as for Mukuro yes he did shrink and he doen't have a pacifier right now. But I'm not telling you anything till Chapter Five. Or else it's spoiler!

So anyways, how many people did go and watch the videos in my profile?

[Eyes your guilty expressions...just kidding]

I wasn't intending to update so fast but noo... I opened up by inbox this morning and the homepage was all "You've got 30 new mails from ." *Spit-water take*

So, because you were reviewing so much,(thank you, I really appreciate it), I'm uploading **TWICE** today. Yes.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>"You baseball freak! Read the situation here!" Gokudera shouted, waving his little fist in Yamamoto's general direction.<p>

Yamamoto glanced at the goldfish-out-of-the-water expression Tsuna had on his face, and scratched the back of his head in an apologetic manner.

"Haha, did I say something wrong, Tsuna? My bad, my bad!" he apologized lightheartedly.

Giotto took a look at all of the infants, and then turned to Alaude.

"Interrogation." the man said without hesitation.

Tsuna later realized that he would have to familiarize himself with the feeling he had right now. The feeling that he was, oppressively and unavoidably, screwed.

* * *

><p>After sending off their guests politely ( but Elena stayed behind), Primo and his guardians wasted no time in flinging the babies into Alaude's dark and gloomy interrogation room.<p>

"Speak." Alaude ordered. "What are you here for?"

Mukuro just chuckled. "Kufufufu. You do realize that you are unable to hold me here, do you?" he said in that haughty air of his. "See you later, Sawada Tsunayoshi." Chrome also turned to Tsuna. "See you later, Boss."

They both tapped their tridents on the surface of the interrogation table and disappeared in a cloud of mist.

Alaude stared at the scene unflinchingly. He then turned his glare on Tsuna, who immediately shrunk back in fear.

"I would assume you are their leader, am I correct? Tell me what is going on, or you can forget about leaving this place."

"HIEEE! That's-" Tsuna stuttered. Gokudera and Yamamoto instinctively moved in front of Tsuna.

"You have no right to demand anything of the Juudaime!" Gokudera yelled, eyes filled with contempt that challenged Alaude.

"G-gokudera-kun!" Tsuna didn't know whether Gokudera had made the situation worse or better, but he doubted it was the latter.

"As for everything Yamamoto said, don't take it to mind at all! The baseball-freak is the most dense among us!" he proclaimed, gesturing his small hand at Yamamoto.

Tsuna couldn't even protest at the insult Yamamoto just received.

"Ahahahaha, it was my fault this time, I must've been mistaken!" Yamamoto said casually to Alaude, unaffected by his aura.

"Yeah, I don't really know what's going on, but you must have EXTREMELY mistaken the situation!"

"It's the other way around, you damn musclehead!"

"Ne,ne, if you give Lambo-san some candy, Lambo-san might just tell you." Lambo called from the other side of the desk and giving Alaude a sly look.

"Lambo!"

"Don't believe the stupid cow either, he'd do anything for candy."

"What was that, Ahodera?"

"The truth, you idiot!"

"STOP!"

All heads turned to Tsuna. "Can everyone stop making a racket?" he said, exasperated.

Just then, the glow of Tsuna's glass pacifier started to intensify, radiating orange light that slowly consumed the the boy.

Tsuna's hyper intuition picked up something.

"Everyone, into the light!" he yelled, squinting from the brightness.

The guardians rushed into the circular barrier of orange light.

* * *

><p>"Oya, ova, how did I end up back here again?"<p>

"Wait a minute, Mukuro." Tsuna's voice was calm, like when his flame was activated.

Like the appearance of the Primo before the defeat of Byakuran, a image slowly started to form in the light.

"Isn't that us?" Ryohei said.

It was a scene of all the guardians seated cross-legged in Tsuna's study. Just then, Reborn burst into the room, his orange-banded fedora seated on his waxed hair, curled sideburns framing his sharp features. Leon was seated on his shoulder.

"Reborn?" Tsuna said curiously. "IS THAT YOU?"

"That's right, dame-tsuna." Reborn said in his deep voice. Tsuna had no idea why he was an adult.

"Why did you call us here?"

"No time." Reborn snapped. "We're going to borrow your forms for a while."

Before anyone could react, he kicked a purple (Not PINK!) ten-year-bazooka ammunition ball at them.

As they hurtled through the purple dimension Tsuna recognized with dread, the pacifiers appeared, and the curse was applied in a moment of blinding light.

"So…that's what happened." Tsuna was in shock. Had Reborn betrayed them after all?

Gokudera was the next to speak. "If the curse was lifted from them so abruptly and placed on us, could the Trinisette be malfunctioning?" he hypothesized.

"You could say that." That voice!

"Lal Mirch!"

"Seems you all aren't dead yet, you brats!"

"Oya, what is the meaning of this? Are the Arcobaleno upstaging a rebellion?"

"Nothing of the sort. And shut up, you irritate me no matter which dimension or whatever age you are."

Mukuro raised an eyebrow. "Oya?"

"Anyway, Reborn couldn't explain to you because we're running out of time."

"Time?"

"Ah. The clear pacifier of this era,which remained a mystery to us, suddenly went missing. That's affecting the sky pacifier, which harmonizes with all the other pacifiers, including the clear one. The trinisette is unbalanced, so we're all weakened here. We'll slowly die if the clear pacifier is not found."

"What?" Tsuna quickly clamped a small hand over his mouth when Lal glared at him.

"Which is why we needed you guys to go back in time to find the clear pacifier and a cure for the sky pacifier. Aria had a premonition that the clear pacifier was somehow sent to the past."

"All of you will start to take on some traits of the Arcobaleno, since you are linked to the pacifiers physically. Like Gokudera's physical reflexes and strength will be heightened, Sawada will have the ability to charm all, and so on."

Then Gokudera's eyes widened in realization.

"Oi, woman." He tried to get Lal Mirch's (or her hologram's) attention. "If you said we're directly linked to the pacifiers, and the sky pacifier is weakening,then…"

Something unidentifiable flashed through Lal Mirch's stone-cold gaze for a moment.

"Ah. You have to accomplish this…before Sawada dies."

* * *

><p>Cliffhanger. Bear with it for three hours. Okay, more like five hours. By 7:30 Japan time today, I swear the next one will be up.<p>

Bye for now!


	5. Request

Hihi!

The second update! I'm so sorry this wasn't published yesterday! It was supposed to, but I'm so hopeless that I didn't realise the save button wasn't for the update...but to edit the fiction. And I was wondering why it was taking forever to show the fifth chapter. No shit sherlock.

I write alot of Tsuna-based fictions because I kind of have a lot in common with him. We both have the uncanny ability to trip over ABSOLUTELY NOTHING at all. Just today I got another bloody knee. I was so surprised when I saw a certain someone (the Reborn of my life) that I just turned around and tried to make a quick run for it, but as soon as I did that I slipped. I swear, if I keep that up I'll have a whole museum of scars on my legs and forehead. Sigh.

**(to Corvino the VII)**: I already read Bloody Tears before you reviewed this fic. Great one-shot, byt he way. Tell me... does this show up as the first few on the list after I update? Because it doesn't show up when I check the archive. Strange...

**(to xXxAnGeLFLoNnExXx)**: Did Mukuro turn into a baby? Someone doesn't pay close attention to detail...XP just pullin' you. I'll answer your question.

**[Quote Time!]**

**"**Mukuro halted. Chrome was… a baby? And she had a violet cloth wrapped around her, a indigo pacifier and a fabric drawstring pouch on a string around her neck.

He stretched out his hand, and his red eye narrowed. "Oya,oya, Sawada Tsunayoshi seems to have gotten me involved in his business again."**"**

**-Chapter 2, Direction.**

Note that he stretched out his hand, and his eye narrowed, then said he got implicated by Tsuna. This is proof that Mukuro turned into a baby, because he noticed his arm was short.

In any case, enjoy!

* * *

><p>" You have to accomplish this…before Sawada dies."<p>

"Wait. What?"

At this, even Hibari, who was at the far end of the barrier and pretending not to be listening, turned his face towards Lal Mirch.

"What are you saying…how can the Tenth die?"

Heck, even Yamamoto looked serious.

"Once the flame of the pacifier completely runs out, he dies. That's why, Sawada, you better abstain from using your flames as much as possible."

"If you use your flames continuously, you have about two weeks left. If you don't, we have a month and a half. Your flame will just weaken in the meantime. Of course, your Vongola rings will still be as powerful."

"They're hidden in your sealed pouches so they don't affect the Vongola rings of this time that much. Also, your weapons will be given to you once you activate your ring. Try not to get into battles, you got that, Sawada? That's the reason why we sent you to the First Generation. For protection. You don't need to worry to much about telling them things, because everything will be reversed once the Trinisette is in order again. After all, the clear pacifier was not supposed to travel to a time in which it already existed. Just try not to tell them that you are the Tenth generation of Vongola, if they ask just tell them you're representatives of the Arcobaleno."

"Reborn doesn't like this, but he had to go along with it anyway."

Tsuna didn't know how to react. Lal was saying a lot more than usual. If even Reborn was serious about this, it meant that the situation was bad. Really bad.

Gokudera turned to him with a resolute look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, Tenth. We'll protect you. You won't have to participate in any battles."

"That's right Tsuna, we'll take care of you."

"We won't let you die, Boss." Chrome vowed. "Kufu."

Even Hibari gave a grunt in agreement.

Tsuna glanced at Lambo, who was currently digging his nose and did not have a clue about what was happening. Tsuna inwardly sighed.

"Oh, about that, Gokudera." Lal Mirch continued. "You're at a disadvantage because clearly, you can't hide any bombs on your person. Unless you some how come up with a smaller System C.A.I."

"Damn right I will!"

A grey pacifier shot out and hit Tsuna square in the face. "Take care of that for me, Sawada! If you get even a scratch on that…" Tsuna shivered at Lal's unspoken threat.

"And…" Lal Mirch seemed to be uneasy for a moment, which filled everyone with dread. "The remaining aspect of the Trinisette is also on their way to protect you."

Tsuna snapped up like an alarm. "Ah? The Mare rings? Who's going to be their bearers?"

"You'll find out soon." A wince of pain flashed across Lal's uncovered face for a second.

"I need to go now. I hate to say this, but we're counting on you, brats!"

"Ah, wait!"

Lal's image was gone; she was also weakened, even though she was half an Arcobaleno. This meant that she had the most remaining energy among the rest, though.

* * *

><p>Alaude was really annoyed. He had been sitting at a desk, facing this ball of orange light he had tried to tap into, but it only repelled him.<p>

Just how long were the strange babies going to stay in there?

After a while, the light dissipated, revealing the eight babies, some of which seemed shocked, one seemed smug… and one that just looked indifferent.

"Arala? The shiny-shiny is gone!" Lambo said, clearly disappointed.

"Are you going to talk now?"

Tsuna didn't seem as intimidated this time.

He looked up at Alaude, brown eyes piercing.

"Please let us speak to your boss."

* * *

><p>Tsuna was sweating. He was so set on doing this earlier, but under Giotto's cold scrutinizing, all of his courage seemed to have evaporated.<p>

"Uhm. I think we should reintroduce ourselves." Tsuna said nervously.

"I'm Tsunayoshi…but you can just call me Tsuna."

"I'm Juudaime's _right hand-man_, Gokudera Hayato." Gokudera said with a little too much force, glaring right at G.

"Hi, I'm Tsuna's friend, Yamamoto Takeshi. Nice to meet ya!" Yamamoto smiled, so his eyes were shut and did not betray his true expression.

"Lambo-san is the great Lambo-san."

"Rokudo Mukuro. And this here is Chrome." She gave a shy bow.

"I'm Sasagawa Ryohei! Extremely pleased to meet you!"

Tsuna waited a moment. Hibari didn't seem interested in this conversation.

"And uh…that's Hibari-san." Tsuna quickly said in a rush.

"I don't believe I asked you to introduce me, Herbivore. Would you like me to bite you to death?" Hibari swung his arm at Tsuna, who dodged in by a hair.

"H-hibari-san! Not now!" He exclaimed, frantic. Hibari pulled back. Oh well. At least the herbivore wasn't shrieking now.

"In any case, we need your help…and we request your protection."

Tsuna bit his lip as he stared hopefully at the towering figures of the guardians.

"G…" Primo began. Tsuna tensed. The right-hand man turned his head towards Giotto.

"They're so cute!" Primo burst out in Italian. G gave him an unbelieving look.

"But I mean, they look so much like us. You see, this one over here looks like you," Primo patted Gokudera's head, who growled at him immediately.

"And he resembles Daemon somehow," Giotto gestured at Mukuro, who stood beside Chrome. Well, he was still creepy with his red eye of the six paths (Naruto reference?) and all. Creepy, but cute.

"And this one reminds me of Asari in a way," Giotto pointed at Yamamoto, who just smiled back.

"And this one looks like Lampo in his kid pictures," Giotto pointed at Lambo. Lampo snorted.

"And this one seems like Knuckles," Pointing at Ryohei this time, and Knuckles blinked uncertainly.

"And this one looks like Alaude," Hibari whacked away Giotto's hand, who didn't even seem to notice.

"And this one would look like me if he dyed his hair blonde." Giotto said, ruffling Tsuna's hair.

Tsuna, surprised by the sudden display of affection, toppled backwards, the cloak around him slipping to reveal his thighs. He gasped at re-covered himself with the cloak. Well, he was technically a baby, but hey, modesty was modesty.

He blushed to his ears.

Then, Primo's guardians had to agree, the kids all looked like little dolls of themselves. They were instantaneously enchanted. (Remember what Lal said about the ability to charm all?…well, almost all.)

"Primo, it's just a longing for a son, right?" G asked, staring at his boss.

"He's just desperate for a kid."

"You don't have one either!"

Tsuna looked at his ancestor. Was this what his highly-respected ancestor appeared to be without his Dying-will? Dear lord.

"Uhm, so…will you protect us?"

Giotto cleared his throat and gave Tsuna a smile. "Of course." Tsuna visibly relaxed at that.

"Giotto, do you know what you're saying?" Lampo said/shrieked in hysteria.

"Lampo, are you forgetting we're a vigilante group? We protect people." he reasoned.

"But it's taking care of babies! BABIES! And I hate the lot of them, especially this snot-nosed one." Lampo pointed at Lambo.

"Hey! Lambo-san doesn't have snot! Nori-atama!"

"What does that even mean?"

"That's why you should brush up on your Japanese, Lampo." Asari chuckled, "It means seaweed-head."

"WHAT? Are you picking a fight with me, brat?" Lampo reached out to grab Lambo, but Tsuna immediately shielded him.

"Forgive Lambo, please. He's just a kid." Lampo snorted. "Aren't you all?"

"In any case, why do you lot need protection?" G questioned. "It's not like you'll get attacked on the streets or anything. We're protecting this town far too securely for that."

Giotto cast a glance at G. That wasn't always the case.

"Okay. Like we said earlier, we aren't really babies. We're arcobaleno, but you wouldn't know us from this time." Tsuna realised what he just said. "Erm, I mean that we're 16-years-old, Mukuro and Hibari-san is slightly older than us, and Lambo is five."

"Due to some, erm, circumstances, we all changed into babies. And we've been sent to find the eighth pacifier, a clear, uncoloured one that looks like this."

Tsuna help up his glass pacifier for the First Generation to look at.

"And other than that, we need to find a cure for this pacifier, because the flame in it is weakening."

"But why do you need the pacifier so badly?" Giotto pressed. "And did you just say flame?"

Tsuna wanted to slap his forehead for the slip-up.

"The clear pacifier will balance out the rest of the pacifiers, and we need it to save our, erm, teachers."

"It should be somewhere in Italy with the cure. This is powered by a Life Flame, it's sort of like a Dying-Will Flame. So when the pacifier runs out of it, I will die."

That was so strange coming out of his own mouth.

The Guardians were all shocked. That was definitely unexpected. There was a hiss from Gokudera, and Chrome lowered her head.

"You better not let that happen, you hear me?" Gokudera spat. "No matter your reason, Juudaime must live on."

"Gokudera..." Yamamoto began, but Gokudera quickly waved him off.

"You've all been through a lot, huh?" Giotto said, calm eyes gazing at the seven babies huddled together on the desk. And the eighth propped on the corner.

"Primo, do you know something we don't?"

"Hyper Intuition."

"Of course."

Giotto once again gave his brown-haired miniature an assuring smile, strangely reminiscent of the one Tsuna has when he's in Hyper mode.

"I've made up my mind. We'll protect you."

* * *

><p>I think that might have been the worst chapter I've ever written. No kidding.<p>

Xanxus birthday?

Updating 'Destroying the Vongola' next!

Also, I will NOT be using the terms "brunette" or "sweatdropped". Brunette seems like an overly-used term for Tsuna since he has brown hair, but I just don't think it fits. I'll just use brown-haired if I really have to. And sweatdropped is highlighted in red. Doesn't seem like an actual term.

Sorry you had to hear me rant.

Please review and do feel free to scold the sh*t out of me for having such an incomprehensible storyline (but then again, nothing in KHR makes sense) and such OOC characterisations. Depending on how bad it gets, I'll edit this whole chapter.

Bye!


	6. Prediction

Hihi!

short suspenseful chapter here, just so you don't have to wait.

**(to Lemo):** haha, just you wait and see. I've been preparing a special surprise to present once this reaches over 50 reviews. I've drawn half the poster now, with Arcobaleno!Hibari and Arcobaleno!Chrome, and they came out okay, I just have to colour them. It's kinda hard to squeeze all eight of them into the picture, so I have to wait and see.

**(xXxAnGeLFLoNnExXx):** Lol, an avaricious Chrome and a clumsy Hibari. I said physical traits though, which is why Tsuna got the mark. You'll see what I mean in a while. Ryohei's going to be blessed, haha.

Well, enjoy!

* * *

><p>That night, Giotto had tried to make accommodations but after failing to cradles (much to the horror and mortification of the tenth generation) out of crates. He then suggested that they share beds, but a completely red-faced Tsuna suggested that they sleep on the desks instead, since they didn't take up that much room.<p>

This proved troublesome as Gokudera outright refused to sleep in G's room, and said that he needed to guard the Tenth at all times. Ever the insufferable spoilt heir, Lampo locked the doors to his room after kicking out Lambo.

Hibari said something about not wanting to crowd around, and was later found on the rooftop. Tsuna seemed concerned for a while. "But…in a baby's body…wouldn't you catch a cold, Hibari-san?" Hibari gave the boy a purple bruise and muttered something darkly like "dragging me into stupid things with your band of weaklings", so Tsuna's protests quickly died down.

In the end, Tsuna ended up sleeping on Giotto's bedroom's desk with Gokudera and Lambo, Hibari slept on the roof of the mansion, Chrome and Mukuro slept by the weapon crates [ "Using a room that reeks of that man's (Daemon) presence… kufufufu…there is no way I'll be doing that."], Yamamoto slept in Asari's training room near Asari's own fuuton, and Ryohei slept on Knuckle's praying bench.

Tsuna stirred, unused to the hooting of owls from the forest that surrounded the mansion. They seemed to be an ominous sign, and Tsuna had this deep uneasy feeling fidgeting about in his gut.

It seemed like forever before he finally fell into the depths of the comforting dreamworld…not very comforting, to say the least.

* * *

><p><em>Screams were heard all around, and, as it focused out, it seemed he'd been staring into the black metal ring of a tall man. The man's face seemed blurry, as if lit by the weak light of flames emblazoning a village behind him. He rested the hand which had the ring on his swirly-patterned steel fedora, and the baleful waning crescent curve of his lips was not unfamiliar to Tsuna. Then several others that leapt out from the burning remains landed beside him, clothes smeared with freshly-shed blood. They flashed him bestial smiles.<em>

_"Did you find him?" The man asked the hat-wearing atrocities._

_Tsuna heard one of them let out a low-pitched whine._

_"No, sir." they confessed._

_At first, the man seemed livid, the muscles in his fingers pulled taut as he removed his hand from the brim of his hat and let it drop to the side, shaking in anger._

_Then, his demeanor turned gentle immediately. He smiled benignly at them, and then turned his head to face the night sky._

_"We shall find the boy who holds the orange sky pacifier. The child of the rainbow."_

* * *

><p>Tsuna sat up, quivering in his sheets. He reached out a shaky hand to grasp the illuminated orange pacifier that hung by his neck.<p>

"Was that…a prediction of the future? An extension of Aria-san and Yuni's powers?" Tsuna wondered.

No wonder he was feeling twitchy all night.

His hands gripped the blanket around him tightly.

He knew what the dream was trying to tell him.

He remembered Lal's words._ "__That's the reason why we sent you to the First Generation. For protection. "_

"They're coming after us."

* * *

><p>Yeah, short chapter.<p>

Just so you know, "Destroying the Vongola" and "The Sky Project" will be updated tomorrow. As for this fiction, well...I'll be doing an omake as a late Xanxus birthday tribute. First one I'll be doing! *eyes flash*

Thanks for reviewing.

Bye!


	7. Omake One

Hihi!

WARNING: CRACK OMAKE. Or at least not the most stable.

I think I've practiced ample caution. Ho-man, why do these three have their birthdays all in a span of three days?

Enjoy!

Note: [ ] in this chapter means struck out words. I don't know why, but I can't type struck out words.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Xanxus, if you are reading this, then you must have decided to celebrate your birthday with Nono-san.<p>

That's good. I'm that [you took my advice] happy for you. Happy birthday to you! Reborn [said that your boots looked old and scratched-up] and I decided to get you a new pair of boots! Hope you like them.

Sorry we couldn't come to wish you in uh…person. Reborn mentioned something about a training trip, so by this time I should be away. I'm glad Nono-san was able to pass this to you. Don't drink- erm, too much today. Happy Birthday!

- Tsunayoshi"

Xanxus stared at the pair of black leather boots Nono pushed into his arms.

"Such a sweet kid, don't you think? Too bad we won't be able to celebrate his birthday this year…" Timoteo murmured with a faraway look.

"Hey, old fart, where did they go, really?" Xanxus blurted out.

"You're concerned with them? That's rare." Timoteo said, smiling at Xanxus with those creepy gentle eyes Xanxus HATED.

"THE HELL I DO, you old geezer! I can't wait for the brat to die! It's better if he never passes his 17th birthday!"

Timoteo chuckled. Then his expression turned mellow. "Something cropped up with the Arcobaleno. So they're a little busy now."

"Tch. Helping all those puny groups out there. Such a bunch of soft trash makes me want to hurl."

"Have a good birthday, my son." Timoteo said, waving him off.

* * *

><p>Xanxus really tried not to be bothered with it. I mean, he didn't really care THAT much. So what if he suspected there lay a little more of a secret under the old man's melancholy look.<p>

He didn't care about the trash. He truly didn't.

"VOIIIIIIIII!" His loudmouthed subordinate was always there to piss him off.

"Shut up, you shark trash." He flung the boots at Squalo's head.

"Voiiiii, what are these? They seem pretty new." Squalo remarked, picking up the boots.

Xanxus turned his head away. "From the trash." he uttered.

"Like, which trash? You call almost all the Vongola and everyone else out there trash."

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, that weak-looking trash."

"Voi, he got you a birthday present? Just a few months after you were trying to mangle his throat? Bahaha! That's the funniest thing I've-" Squalo was caught off when a whiskey bottle was thrown at his head again.

"WH-WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU SHITTING BOSS!" his subordinate sputtered, blood and whiskey streaming down his forehead.

"Shut up."

"Tch. In any case, we're all seeing you in the meeting room later." He said softly, closing the door behind him as he headed out.

* * *

><p>That night, Xanxus had a really bad headache.<p>

He briefly considered calling off the meeting arranged by the officers. But on second thought, all those trash would just slack off if he weren't there, anyway.

The minute he opened the iron-gilded twin wooden doors, though, a burst of streamers shot in his direction, confetti cascading down upon him.

"O-me-de-to!" a familiar irritating voice sang.

"Happy birthday, Bossu!" Levi cried, giving Xanxus a salute.

"Shishishi, the boss is all covered in confetti."

"Voiiiii, he looks like he's about to blow up. Was going ahead with Lussuria's plan really a good idea?"

"Of course it was!" Lussuria gave a revolting pout.

"O-tanjo-bi, boss!" Lussuria waved a cream cake about in front of Xanxus' face. "Blow out all your 18 candles!"

Xanxus' fist clenched. This was really getting on his nerves. He needed an outlet. Seeing as the cake was possibly the closest, he took out his X-guns and shot out a small blast. The cake was splattered all over Lussuria.

"Moh! You're too forceful!" Lussuria hufffed.

"Forget about him and look at this, Boss!" Levi said, drawing back the crimson curtains of the meeting room.

"I, uh, have been working on this for a long time." Levi puffed up with pride, using his gloved finger to scratch his cheek.

The night sky was suddenly illuminated with streaks of lightning, seeming to appear in pattern, and to a beat ( of course, Xanxus' theme). Levi covered his earpiece and whispered something along the lines of "Do it now!" sharply.

"Yes, boss!" came the reply.

Several showers of powder were shot up into the air, the white lightning igniting them and turning green or red (it's true that this can happen to certain minerals).

"What do you think, Boss?"

"Hmph. I couldn't care less." came the callous reply, but Xanxus kept his empty gaze on the window.

"Where's Mammon, by the way?" Belphegor commented.

"Tch. That trash is probably somewhere dying in a corner." Xanxus had no idea how true his words were.

"Well anyway, he left this for you." Bel tossed a package in Xanxus direction, and it sailed straight like a knife, before Xanxus caught it.

He sat himself down in one of the chairs by the meeting table and tore open the packaging, a stack of notes dropping into his lap. He read the note written on the paper that was used to bind the cash together.

"Boss,

I'll be off for a while due to some annoying matters regarding the rainbow. Reborn won't let me say anything, but it's serious, so I'll be gone for a week or two. Happy birthday.

-Mammon"

"Tch." he growled.

He turned his head and happened to spot the pair of leather boots in the corner, leaning against the wall in a straight and orderly manner.

As he took a swig from his iced glass, he looked at Belphegor, who was sporting a lunatic's grin, Lussuria, who was prancing about in his red apron, Levi, who was shooting him adoring looks, and Squalo, who was muttering something unintelligible and swearing under his breath at an amused Lussuria.

Xanxus wondered why he kept all these trash to clutter up his place. Well, Vongola was like a huge trashcan to him now that he, (wascoughdefeatedcough) hum, gave up the rings.

After all, they had failed him so many times, in so many ways.

But maybe, just maybe, not today.

They all remembered. As did his trash relations.

* * *

><p>Oh, Xanxus is opening up his heart... at least for today.<p>

Let me know what you think!

The next two chapters will have some sort of Omake content (because of Reborn's and Tsuna's birthday), but there will be the actual story in it, too.

Bye!


	8. Birthday

Hihi!

Yeah, I know, two chapters in a day. It's really late at night and I just typed this so excuse the OOCness (if any), on account that my brain isn't working.

I've pumped out around three chapters today.

Seeing as none of you left any questions, I think I'll just let you read the rest!

It's in honour of Reborn's birthday, and it just didn't feel right if I did it tomorrow.

This chapter is sort of an omake, yet fills up some of the gaps in the storyline.

In any case, I'll edit it later...if I feel up to it.

Enjoy.

* * *

><p>Tsuna sat down at the table with his friends, spikes of hair looking rather bedraggled with sweat. His weary eyes were out of focus, and his tired slouch was quite obvious.<p>

"Tsuna? Are you okay today?" Yamamoto asked. "You don't look so good."

"You feeling okay, Juudaime?" Gokudera asked softly, looking at his boss in concern.

"It's fine." Tsuna replied. What else was he supposed to say? That he'd unwittingly used flames in his sleep and had a premonition of the future? Or that he'd had a nightmare? Which was not entirely untrue.

"You're all up. Join us for breakfast." G said, peeking his reddish-pink mane 'round the door of the hall.

"Let's go, Juudaime." Gokudera said, taking the boy's hand, and then realizing how cold it was.

"Juudaime? Why's your hand so cold?" Gokudera was panicking, simply because Tsuna's hand didn't radiate the warmth he knew and cherished.

Tsuna slowly looked around. By now, most of the guardians had hopped off the table and were making their way towards the dining hall, trailing after G.

"Say, Gokudera-kun, where's Hibari-san?" Tsuna tried to change the subject. If anything, he didn't want them to worry about the expiry date pasted on his life.

* * *

><p>[Last Evening]<p>

"Forgive me for asking, Juudaime, but how can you be so calm about all of this?"

Gokudera said, eyes imploring Tsuna's.

"Yeah, Tsuna, you're taking all of this awfully well."

"Panicking is an action of the weak." Hibari stated, hands trying to adjust his cloak.

"Kufufu, this game would end if you died before I possessed you." Tsuna ignored that.

He let out a deep sigh. "Well, if you don't mind me saying this, I get that a lot. You guys, of all people, should remember me being sentenced to death more than once." He raked a hand through his spikes of brown hair. "And besides, I'm more worried about Reborn and the other's safety. They're also at risk, remember?"

"Boss…"

"Mah, at least the kid gets to be in his old form again!" Yamamoto laughed, trying to keep the mood light.

"I thought you said you and him had a promise not to mention the secret of the Arcobaleno!" Gokudera yelled.

"Datte, it isn't exactly related, right? And anyway," Yamamoto smiled at Tsuna. "I think it more or less has been revealed to you all by now."

Tsuna held out the grey, uncolored pacifier. It had dark squiggles of a mineral of some sort, like tangled threads of obsidian trapped in a grey glass bauble.

"I wonder what Lal was thinking, passing this to me." Tsuna pondered aloud. "She immediately snatched Colonello's pacifier from us when I opened the box, right?"

"The situation is probably so serious that the ogre had to pass us her pacifier."

Tsuna frowned a little. "That's what gets me worried about their condition."

"Ah, I didn't mean to make you worried! Forgive me!"

"Come to think of it, Boss, isn't this pacifier uncolored, like the clear one we're supposed to find?"

Tsuna looked at Chrome, slightly shocked by something. She looked away timidly as everyone was looking at her.

"Good point, my dear Chrome."

"You're right, Chrome! I wonder what the uncolored part has in relation to them, though…"

"Well, the ogre woman was always going on about 'I'm a failed Arcobaleno' and such when she was with Reborn."

"Hmmm… could the holder of the clear pacifier be a failed Arcobaleno too? But it doesn't have the squiggles, according to Reborn…"

* * *

><p>"So, did you all have a good rest last night?" asked Giotto, earnest eyes and smile directed at the eight babies seated at the foot of the table.<p>

There were some grunts and some nods.

"I can't believe you missed out on EXTREME morning exercise, Sawada!" yelled Ryohei.

Tsuna gave him an apologetic, lopsided smile. "Sorry, onii-san. I didn't feel up to it."

"You look tired because you need training to fully wake up!"

Somehow, Tsuna wasn't entirely convinced.

"Oi, what happened to the brat?" Lampo said, stretching his arms.

"Yeah. You look tired. Tsuna, wasn't it?" Giotto said.

"Don't be so concerned with them, Giotto. We're already housing these weird kids."

"That's right, you don't need to worry yourselves about us more than you already do." Tsuna said, his tone sounding a tad flat.

Oh wait, that sounded so hostile! Tsuna didn't think using that much flames would have such a draining effect on him.

"Juudaime, is something bothering you? You've seemed restless all morning."

_"Should I tell them about what happened? But, I shouldn't worry them unnecessarily. It's my fault they've all become babies too…"_

"No, I'm just wondering how they're doing. It's Reborn's birthday today."

* * *

><p>"Ohaiyo, Kyoko-chan! ~" a bright, chirpy voice called.<p>

Kyoko turned and saw Haru walking down the street towards her, dressed in a casual pink-and-yellow hoodie and dress.

"Oh, Ohaiyo, Haru-chan!" Kyoko beamed at her.

"Are you also headed towards Tsuna-san's place, perhaps?" Haru asked.

"That's right, Haru-chan. How did you know?"

Haru grinned and waved a hand dismissively, swinging the plastic bag in her other hand slightly.

"No, it was just a guess! I'm going there too!"

"Let's walk there together,then."

"Mm!"

* * *

><p>[30 minutes later]<p>

Nana opened the door to reveal the two girls. "Ara, what brings you two here?"

"It's Reborn-kun's birthday! Haru came to share cake with him!"

"I came to pass him a birthday present."

"Is that so?" Nana's smile faltered for a second before lighting up again, her eyes not really meeting the other girls'.

"Well, it's really a pity, since Reborn-kun isn't home right now."

Haru and Kyoko looked disappointed for a moment.

"Ja, is Tsuna-san home? We haven't seen him for a few days." Kyoko asked meekly.

"Oh, I'm afraid Tsuna isn't home either. I wonder where that boy went… I didn't even see him and his friends leave the house the other day…" Nana seemed to be immersed in her thoughts.

Kyoko pursed her lips and Haru bit her bottom lip a little. They had all disappeared again…Onii-san too…it must be that mafia business again…

"C-cheer up Kyoko-chan!" Haru said, giving an uneasy smile after they waved goodbye to Nana. "Perhaps he'll be home tomorrow!"

Kyoko nodded, but she didn't seem convinced.

* * *

><p>Nana watched as the girls disappeared behind a bend, walking off.<p>

She closed the door and retreated up the stairs, Haru's bag in her hand.

"Reborn-kun, you've got some birthday presents."

All seven had congregated in Tsuna's room, and spun round at the sound of Nana's voice.

She unwrapped the cake and placed it on the table, as well as the wrapped present.

"Happy birthday, Reborn-kun."

She then left them to their own devices.

"Well, aren't you going to open it, kora?" A man seated beside him asked, hands wrapped around his head lazily and tucked behind his military-green bandana.

"I don't need you to tell me that, Colonello."

Reborn used a finger to twirl a curly sideburn, and then retracted the hand to neatly tear the front flap of the package open. It was a ribbon and bell for Leon.

"Hitmen need stealth." he said simply, casting the bell out the window.

"Yare, are, you think she'd give you a present that was at least worth something."

the male in the corner said, the hood pulled over his head shadowing his eyes.

"Don't you think that was a bit harsh, kora?" Colonello asked.

"But Reborn is right, he has no use for that gift." Lal Mirch said, her arms folded around her.

"While we search for Aria or Uni, why not celebrate your birthday too, Reborn?" Fon asked, patting Lichi once on the head.

"The idiot Skull shall cut the cake."

"Wh-What was that Reborn- I mean, no problem, Senpai…" Skull quickly rearranged his words when Reborn sent him a glare, which was even more intimidating now that the man was back to being, well, a man.

"Seriously, I don't get what's with birthdays. They don't make the human structure mature particularly in a scientific manner in comparison to the day before. I'm going back to my lab." Verde stood up and heard the click of a gun. Reborn aimed his handgun at the man's back.

"Don't you dare take a step out." Reborn said, his shadowed onyx eyes taking on a cold and dangerous glint. "Because you know that if anyone or anything messes with the bazooka-" he pointed to the hollow, thick purple cylinder that stood in a corner. "-they're, and we're, screwed, Verde."

There was an amused laugh.

"Always the highly strung-up one, aren't you, Reborn?"

"Happy birthday, Reborn."

* * *

><p>Kufu, now you know what they're trying to protect.<p>

Next chapter could be appropriately titled, "An unpleasant birthday surprise".

Feel free to leave questions in your reviews.

Bye!


	9. Shiftgear

Hihi!

I'm not nearly as energetic as I sound. Hoo~

In any case, thank you all for reviewing.

**(to Kitty Neko):** haha, I'd like to see what you can come up with. Go ahead!

**(to Reikishichizu):** Hn, re-watching KHR episode one, I've noticed that Nana might not be as clueless as everyone thinks she is.

**(to 10th Squad 3rd Seat):** That's not really it. He's just pissed off that he has to keep the other arcobaleno in check and make sure they stay and protect the bazooka from possible attackers...whether he's simply being paranoid or not...I'm not going to reveal. Moreover, he feels really angry that he's sort of vulnerable right now. Oh yes, thank you for pointing the mistakes in the omake chapter out. That's what happens when I sleep-type, haha. I've already made the necessary changes to it.

Hm, this is like an omake but not quite an omake, so I'll call it an actual chapter.

I'm going to call a spade a spade.

Ahahaha, get it? (excuse my lack of humour when I am half-asleep)

Well, you will when you read on.

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Tsuna woke up the next morning to find a trident pointed in his face.<p>

"HIEEEEEE!" He shrieked, scrambling to a more comfortable distance from the pointy object.

"Kufufufu, quite the active one in the morning, aren't you, Sawada Tsunayoshi?" the other black-cloaked baby said, flicking a stray cobalt blue lock.

"Wh-what was that for?" The surprised boss squeaked, while the guardian had a smug expression on his face.

"Hm? Oh, that's right. I have something to do." He tapped the trident on Primo's desk.

Before Tsuna could say anything, the Cerulean bluish-indigo mist of illusionary space enveloped him.

"Gah! Mukuro! What is the meaning of this?" Tsuna stood up and tried to run, but he tripped over the hem of his straw cloak.

His only reply was a laugh. Picking himself up, he saw a rectangular hole in the mist where light shined through.

Instinctively, he picked up on his small heels and ran towards the light. It took quite a while, seeing as the light wasn't actually that close to him, but seemed like a long tunnel, edging further and further…

…Until he finally seemed to be getting nearer. He was panting by this time, and launched himself out of the hole in the illusionary space….

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUUDAIME!"

"Happy birthday, Tsuna!"

"Hn."

"I wish you an extremely happy birthday, SAWADA!"

"Happy birthday, Boss."

Tsuna took one look at the guardians before him, and the first family that stood behind a flat, un-iced cake, with long, lit matchsticks sticking out of it, and blinked.

"Eh? EHH?"

"I FORGOT!"

[Last Evening]

The first and tenth generation stared at the cloaked little boss, who lay soundly asleep on the desk that had a reduced pile of paperwork.

"Should we wake him up?" Knuckles asked, uncharacteristically soft-voiced.

"What for? It's where he sleeps, anyway." Giotto pointed out.

G gave him a disbelieving look. "Giotto, he's only slept there for one night. Don't make it sound like he lives here."

"But G, I can't express how thankful I am that he's been helping me with the paperwork."

* * *

><p>[FLASHBACK IN A FLASHBACK! OH YES!]<p>

"….Primo-san, are you sure there isn't something we could help you with?" Tsuna asked, eyebrows knitted together.

"For the last time, Tsuna, call me Giotto, and I don't think there's anything anyone of your-" He waves a hand up and down in front of Tsuna. "-size could help us do anything."

"Was that an insult to the Juudaime?" Gokudera growled.

"Sorry, but it slipped." Tsuna said, holding back Gokudera like it was his routine.

"Do you mind trying to occupy yourselves for today? I have a lot of paperwork to do." Giotto said, pinching the bridge of his nose in an exasperated manner. He hoped he didn't sound like the was tired of babysitting.

Suddenly, Tsuna's eyebrows relaxed a little, and he even managed a tired smile. "Say, Giotto-san, how about letting me solve some of the paperwork?"

"You?" asked G incredulously, who was at the other side of the room.

"Um…I'm really glad to have help with paperwork, but are you really sure you can do this, Tsuna?" There was an emphasis on the can, but the correct word should've been 'allowed'. It would be bad if information leaked out of the family.

"Of course the Juudaime can! Juudaime has done this sort of thing with Reborn-san before, it'll be a breeze!"

"It'll be nothing much really…I'll just sift through the documents and tell you which you need to sign, ask which you want to reject… and so on." Tsuna paused as his hyper intuition picked up something. "And the secrets of this family will stay within these walls."

Giotto smiled. "Well, okay then!" he agreed, ignoring G's protests. He was happy that his work would be finished earlier, and Tsuna seemed honest enough.

A few minutes later, Giotto found himself seated in his desk, surrounded by mounds of paperwork. Tsuna was also seated on the desk, his face scrunched up in concentration as he pored over the documents. He bit on his lip and his eyes were slowly roaming the papers. Giotto held in a chuckle. That look of utter focus seemed so strange on a baby…yet so cute.

* * *

><p>[End of flashback-flashback.]<p>

"Tsuna looks so exhausted."

"I wouldn't be surprised. He's been drowsy-looking the whole day."

"You know, we should do something about tomorrow."

Gokudera's eyes shone. "That's right! It's Juudaime's birthday!"

"It's Sawada's birthday tomorrow?" Ryohei asked.

"Yea! How could you not know, turf-top?"

"It's Tsuna's birthday tomorrow? Then why don't we throw him a party?"

"A party? Lambo-san loves parties! Yay!" The cow-suit kid cheered.

"Giotto, you are getting yourself too involved." Alaude stated blandly.

"Oh come on, he was a big help today, I managed to finish today and tomorrow's work, all before dinnertime."

"That's right, Tsuna didn't get to eat dinner, did he?"

* * *

><p>[ A while later ]<p>

"What else do we need?"

"Oh, a cake would be extreme!" Ryohei announced, thumping his fist on his other palm.

They later found themselves staring at a dense loaf.

"Bread? What the hell?" Gokudera cursed.

"What do you mean? It has sugar, so it's a cake."

Oh right, they were 400 years in the past. And in Europe.

"Um… could you put more sugar into it? And make it circular?" Yamamoto suggested.

"Sure, I'll have the kitchen make another one."

"We'll also need birthday candles! Seventeen, for the Juudaime."

"Um, if you're talking about candles, we have this." Primo pointed at a square block of wax with a wick in its core. "Or this." He pointed at the candelabra on the table.

"Are you kidding me? Do either look like they would fit on the cake?"

"It goes onto the cake?" Asari asked, awed.

"Of course! The person has to blow out the candles on the cake!"

"Um, if you don't mind, should I make illusionary candles for Bossu?" Chrome suggested.

"The hell no!" Gokudera cried.

"Although," G rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "There are other things illusions could be used for…"

* * *

><p>"How can someone forget their birthday?" Giotto looked at Tsuna questioningly. At least, not children. Children of this period were usually delighted when this day came around, because their parents would give them a penny or pend time with them.<p>

"Well, my last birthday was overshadowed by Reborn's…and nobody bothered to celebrate with me the previous times, so…"

Giotto frowned. Who was this Reborn person? He seemed to be taking over quite a bit of Tsuna's life.

"And was using illusions really necessary?" Tsuna cringed.

"I'm so sorry we did things you dislike on your birthday, Juudaime!" Gokudera pounded his head on the floor.

"Ah-Chrome! Sorry, I didn't mean it like that!" Tsuna tried to pacify his other guardian, who seemed crestfallen after hearing Tsuna say that.

The guardians' were alerted back to the cake when an acrid smell of burnt sugar wafted towards them.

"HIEEE! It's burning!"

After an unnecessary bout of panic, they put out the smoking cake.

"Really, whose idea was it to put matchsticks on a cake?"

Asari could only grin sheepishly.

"Hmph." Alaude snorted with disdain.

"I see you are enjoying yourself, Primo."

A figure materialized straight out of thin air.

"D-Daemon!" Giotto jumped back in a shock.

Tsuna and the others' faces dropped when they saw the first mist guardian.

"You're back." Giotto said, smiling, recovering his composure.

Tsuna audibly groaned.

Daemon turned his eyes to the babies.

"Nufufufu…what do we have here?"

* * *

><p>[After a bout of chaos and hurried explanations]<p>

"Daemon, what took you so long?" G said.

"Nothing you should be concerned with." Daemon replied smoothly.

God that voice made Tsuna shudder.

"There's no doubt about it, Elena must have rode off in a cart and left you stranded, with no other options but to walk here." Lampo concluded. Giotto was shocked by his strange perceptiveness sometimes.

"Would you like to die, Lampo?" Daemon's voice dripped with sickeningly sweet malice.

Tsuna just gaped at their exchange. Giotto had spared him the nerve-wrecking task, and relayed the whole businesss to Daemon. He seemed to take it pretty well, Tsuna might have thought, if not for the thoughtful, calculating eyes boring into him, bearing the promise of a thorough investigation.

_"Daemon must never know of the truth…" _Tsuna thought. _"Knowing how power-hungry he is, he might just take the pacifiers for himself,"_

"Juudaime, I'm so sorry this had to happen on your special day!" Gokudera kowtowed again.

"It's okay, Gokudera-kun. I'm already really happy that you guys did all this for me."

"Huh?" Gokudera's face was reddening. "Iyah-yah-yah, Juudaime! It was nothing at all! You deserve better!"

Tsuna sighed. The other arcobaleno representatives had, by now, scattered, Lambo in pursuit of candy, while Yamamoto wanted to try out a primitive type of Japanese 'ball game'. Ryohei left for training, and Chrome…well, he didn't really know where she and Mukuro often disappeared to.

He tried to brighten up a bit. He would change what he saw in the premonition. He would find a way to get stronger, without Reborn…

Without Reborn…

* * *

><p>"EH?" Was the most elegant reply Tsuna could come up with when a note appeared in a cloud of smoke.<p>

_"Dame-Tsuna, I will properly celebrate my birthday when you idiots come back. And yours. You'd better hurry up and find the other pacifier, or you know what's waiting for you when you come back…" _Tsuna shuddered at the unspoken threat.

_"Sawada, if it isn't already obvious, Reborn has found a way to interfere."_

Tsuna smiled. If Reborn could send him a message like this…It meant that they were alright.

For now.

* * *

><p>[Somewhere else]<p>

"Hnhnhn….We've arrived." The man lifted the tip of his steel hat to look at the village.

"Boss, we know that they're around here somewhere… but it might just be a flying word-" The assassin beside him was cut off.

"Shut up, Mahlia. Don't spoil my pleasant mood."

The assassin nodded coyly, returning to her position.

"Well, my friends…you know what to do… search the village for the boy." The man's lips curved into a dangerous smile. "And don't be bothered to be clean."

It only took a while for terror to reign over the village, as the cries of the hapless victims and the screams of the children echoed in the air.

* * *

><p>Uh... well from here on sh*t gets serious.<p>

I hoped you enjoyed the two Omake chapters.

And...I'm sorry they didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

Which is why I won't be updating for quite a while, I'm going to develop the chapters a bit more.

OH, before I forget, I made edits to 'The Sky Project' chapter three, so for those of you who already read it, I'm sorry to have to trouble you with reading it again.

Guh, tired. Typing at 3am in the morning to rush out Tsuna's birthday fic seems a bit overkill, and it's clearly not good.

Like how you have been up till now, (thankssomuchforthatohmygod) please express your doubts or corrections in the reviews...am I treating you like beta readers? Hopefully not.

Are some of you wondering why I didn't update 'Destroying the Vongola' even though I clearly said I would? Well...I wrote a dark fic one-shot titled 'Melodia Di Diperazione' or 'Melody of Despair', and after which I wasn't really in the mood to post 'Destroying the Vongola'. Sorry.

Bye!


	10. Discovered

Hihi!

I'm back from my break! After watching/reading too many sappy, sad things, I have poured it all out of me into a side story for 'Melodia Di Disperazione', which I have titled 'Note Di Miseria (Musicali)', to show the dad's side of things. Unfortunately for you guys, not all the sappiness has been appeased and I am sad to say that two-thirds of the content for this chapter is unadulterated, pure Tsuna and Gokudera friendship fluff. So if you're not a fan of the friendship theme (don't look at me that way, there are peoplelike that, coughHibaricough.) I suggest that you stop at the warning marker. It's rated T and for goodness' sake, ITS NOT BL. I swear.

And on another note, I'm getting discouraged because every time I relog on to FF, another bug appears. This time, I can't simply upload a doc because it will have no spacings and no brackets. It even gets rid of a few words in between. So basically I have to re-edit everything inside the Doc Manager. It gets REALLY annoying.

**(to Rekishichizu):** I did research, it wasn't popular until a forty-fifty years after Primo's time. Till then, all sweet breads were considered 'cakes'.

**(to Kitty Neko):** Wow, those are rough sketches. You need a reference? Sure! I'm sorry to everyone that I haven't posted the poster that was supposed to be up by the 50th review, but I'm having trouble drawing chibi!Gokudera. His face is too...wide in the anime. So far I've drawn in Tsuna, Chrome, Lambo and Hibari.

**(to Corvino the VIII): **Thanks. Well, if you didn't notice, the last chapter was titled 'Shiftgear', which meant that the story was shifting its gears into action. The fights will begin in Infante Del Cielo Parte Undici. Well, quick random fact, I always title my chapters in the document manager in Italian.

**(to hiyomi):** Hoh, just you wait. She will be more involved.

**(to 10th Squad 3rd Seat): **But of course. Would you really want to wake up with the desire to head out, only to be halted by stacks of DREADED paperwork? =)

**(to Saturnblue):** No, unfortunately, he won't. He will use it, because I'm evil.

And so here it is, Parte Dieci!

Enjoy!

* * *

><p>Tsuna was starting to believe he was cursed. Every time he celebrated his birthday, something bad lurked over the horizon.<p>

The day had been fine, by Tsuna's standards anyway. The First Generation had taken them out on a tour around the village, with Daemon making unannounced appearances occasionally just to get a rise out of Tsuna. Gokudera then had to be held by the cloak to prevent him from socking Daemon in the face. (Of course, I don't think his punches and kicks can reach Daemon's height.) Then they were approached by cooing, admiring townsfolk who thought the babies were the children of the first generation. Giotto badly wanted to facepalm as G fought off their increasingly scandalous comments. ("Gyah, Primo's son is so cute!" and "WOW, they can speak fluent Italian! As expected of the Vongola's children, they're all kid geniuses!") Tsuna didn't think he could blush any harder. Then Hibari got pissed off by the senseless crowding and a scuffle broke out, only to be exacerbated by a cheeky Mukuro. Thank God, no one got maimed by the end of the day.

Or at least, that's what Tsuna thought before a uniformed messenger burst the doors open and was held back by protesting guards. Giotto gave them the signal to release him.

"Primo!" The messenger ran through the doorway in a frenzy, getting down to one knee. "Sorry for the intrusion, but I have urgent news! A village in the south was attacked and burnt down by assassins! There are no known survivors and the damage is appalling."

The others gasped and Tsuna blanched in horror. This had happened much sooner than he expected it to. He was too late.

"What?" The anger in Primo's voice was unconcealed, and if possible, caused the messenger to shrink back further.

"What are your orders to the troops?" He asked, trying to keep his voice level.

"Take Alaude's squad and investigate. I want the attackers found and captured. They will be brought here for interrogation." Giotto ordered.

"Yes, sir!" The messenger scrambled to his feet and took off.

When he was out of sight, Giotto slumped into a chair. "How could this have happened?"

"The people of the southern village were very peaceful and had no known enemies over the borders. Who would do this?" Asari said, shaking his head in remorse.

Giotto pinched the bridge of his nose in distress. "That was the village G and I grew up in…"

"Those figlio di puttana will not go unpunished, I assure you, Giotto." G hissed.

"I have to agree that they will need some torture when they arrive here." Daemon gave a callous smirk that promised suffering on those attackers.

Giotto gave a dejected glance at Alaude, who was silently seething with anger, (he could tell with Hyper Intuition), but was keeping it in.

"I'll bite them to death for disturbing the peace." Hibari added in a dangerous tone.

"Oya, ova, why the pale face, Sawada Tsunayoshi?" Mukuro enquired, drawing attention to the guilt-stricken baby on the table.

"Juudaime?" Gokudera had an arm extended, as if about to catch and protect his precious Tenth.

"It's nothing." He insisted, but his inner thoughts were in turmoil.

* * *

><p><strong>[Tsuna and Gokudera friendship-ish fluff! You have been warned!]<strong>

* * *

><p>Later that night, Tsuna rolled around in his sheets, careful not to stir Gokudera, whose little body was curled up on the table a little to his right. (He wants to be the right-hand man even in his sleep.)<p>

He couldn't stop thinking about how he could- _should _have prevented the massacre.

Then a horrible thought struck him. What if they started looking in other villages?

He had no right to be selfish. For the others' sake, he had to know what was in the near future and stop it.

Easing out his breath, he put a hand on his pacifier, and tried hard to concentrate flames into it. It wasn't working, even when he built up a resolution to save his friends.

Some Sky Arcobaleno he was turning out to be.

Suddenly, Tsuna felt the energy being sucked out of him and into the pacifier, which started to emit a steady and strong glow.

"Juudaime?" A drowsy-sounding voice called from beside Tsuna.

"A-ah! Gokudera-kun." He nearly jumped in fright and spun to face the baby who was rubbing his half-lidded eyes. 'Calm down! Or I'll sound suspicious!' He thought quickly as he quickly stopped the exchange of flames.

"U-uhm, why are you up? You should go back to sleep, you'll need it, haha…" He said, eyes darting furtively to avoid Gokudera's sleepy gaze.

"Juudaime, what was that bright orange light?" Gokudera asked, ignoring Tsuna's question.

"Wh-what orange light?" Tsuna acted dumb, all the while sweating nervously. He didn't like the serious look on Gokudera's face.

"Juudaime, please don't lie to me. You've been using your flames, haven't you?" Tsuna felt as if Gokudera's eyes were searing right into his.

He gulped. "Gokudera-kun, I-" He was cut off when Gokudera grabbed his boss's shoulders. (Even as a baby, Gokudera has larger hands than Tsuna.)

"Why, Juudaime? You know what will happen if you continue to use it!" He exclaimed, shaking Tsuna desperately.

"It's necessary!" He yelled, as a weak defense.

"Please don't tell the others, Gokudera-kun. That's an order." He said, turning his head around.

"NO! I'm sorry, but I-we won't allow you to do this!" Gokudera said firmly, and Tsuna faced him again, shell-shocked. This is the third time Gokudera has defied him.

"Gokudera-kun, you don't understand! There's too much at risk here! You guys, Reborn and the others, Kyoko, Haru and Mother-all the people in this world and ours- they'll all die!" Tsuna cried, trying to pry Gokudera's hands off his shoulders. "If I can change something and predict the enemy's moves…you'll all be able to go back to the future safe and sound!"

"And what about that? Do you think we'd want to return to such a future?" Gokudera tried to reason with his boss. "Do you think we'd be fine returning to a future without the Tenth? I thought you were the one who told me that, Juudaime, that it wouldn't be a victory-it would be pointless if someone was sacrificed, much less the boss!"

Tsuna badly wanted to facepalm. Why couldn't Gokudera see things his way?

"All the more I should- you know the boss is responsible for protecting his subordinates, that's what Reborn always says!"

"I'm sorry, but Juudaime, please keep quiet for a while." Gokudera apologized, clasping a small hand over Tsuna's mouth. Tsuna let out a muffled gasp.

"Juudaime, we are not called 'guardians' for no reason. We are entitled to protect you. We're all going to go back to the future, alive. The yakyuu-baka, shibafu-atama, Ahoshi too, that Hibari bastard and the pineapple-heads…we're not going to going to let you die like that incident," Gokudera lets out a pained hiss in the memory. "And we're not going back to the future without you. The chocolate bananas and fireworks wouldn't be the same otherwise." Gokudera finishes, with that resolute glint in his eyes.

He was quite taken aback when his boss buried his head in the shoulder of his cloak.

"I'm scared I'll screw up, Gokudera-kun. I hate it every time I have to sit back and let you guys get hurt." (Like during the fight in the forest with Byakuran, or when he had to wait for the X-Burner contacts while eating a lollipop.) "And it's all my fault those people died. I knew- I knew it was going to happen and yet I-I couldn't warn the First Generation! The village was attacked because they were looking for _me_, Gokudera-kun!"

Gokudera hesitantly placed his small hand on the Tenth's brown mane. "It wasn't your fault, Tenth…I've never heard you mention this before, but I don't think you knew which village it was."

"You've been crying…haven't you, Tenth? The front of your cloak's wet."

"H-have not!" He said, muffled by Gokudera's cloak. Gokudera could already feel his boss' face warming up.

"Aaah! I'm sorry for embarrassing you, Tenth!"

Unbeknownst to them, Giotto had long been woken up by their squabbling and listened intently to Tsuna sighing and trying to appease a flustered Gokudera. A small smile made its way to his lips, but he frowned when he heard Tsuna's mumbling about being at fault for the village's attack.

* * *

><p><strong>The Sky Arcobaleno shows more emotion than anyone else.<strong>

* * *

><p>A man was fidgeting impatiently about in his cushioned throne, constantly adjusting his steel hat as if it would burn to a crisp if it were a degree lower or higher.<p>

"*BEEP*-sama (I don't want you to know his name just yet)." A masked man kneeled before the one seated on the throne.

The man instantly sat up and his frown turned upwards. He clapped his hands in the mannerisms of an excited child.

"Curio, what news do you bear?" He could barely hold back his excitement.

"*BEEP*-sama, I have photos that were taken in a village in northern Sicily, near Giuseppe."

The man flicked through the photos absentmindedly, but lit up when he saw a particular one.

"Hoh, is that so? Well, prepare to move the 'base'. I think we've found what we've been looking for." He said, grinning like he'd struck gold.

"What shall we do with the traitor? She was captured after helping the villagers, on you order, *BEEP*-sama."

"Oh, her? Yeah, well, throw her in the dungeons and move her too. Whatever." He said disinterestedly.

"Very well. Curio shall live to carry out your orders."

* * *

><p>And there we have it. It's in the dead of night now so I shall be going. Please keep the reviews strong!<p>

Bye!


	11. Rumble

Hello again!

It's been really long huh?

**No**, I'm not dead yet. I was on holiday, and I went to see the AFA 2011 in Singapore. Too bad the Vocaloid concert wasn't as good as the Tokyo one.

And then after that I couldn't get out of my house. And this guy I'll call the "guy in the keyhole" kept asking for my number.

Sorry for those of you who liked The Sky Project, but I'm putting it on HIATUS. For like, two months. Or until the anime starts again.

And other than that, I was also working on two new story dumps,which do you think I should replace The Sky Project with?

Option A- Trial of the innocents: (Summary: She was supposed to be grieving the loss of her little son, not having bunking issues with a lost, disorientated mafia boss.)

Option B- KATEKYO HITMAN REWRITE!: Sky's Shadows. (You can't hide forever,Tsuna. Even the sky casts shadows.) (Summary: AU. Iemitsu and Nana were not the bio parents of Tsuna, and he only comes to know the fact that he is a Vongola prince, rightful heir to the position as head of the Vongola family, which rules over Italy.) I like this one =)

Option C- Just focus on 'Destroying the Vongola', lazy author.

**(to NicoRinRFW):** 'Cause I wanted to show the link between Curio and the dude. He doesn't follow him cuz he's the boss, he literally worships the guy.

**(to mi-chan94)**: Read above.

**(to Sarah Eustacia Eve Rosalie)**: Of course I am. Thank you.

Which is why... Reborn recap!

* * *

><p>Reborn: Ciaossu! Tsuna and company were thrown into the future due to the altered ten-year-bazooka ammunition. The arcobaleno curse was transferred to them because they have to find the Clear Pacifier, which is somehow stuck in the past. They aren't any closer to finding it, and there are already casualties. Where could Yuni and Luce be?<p>

* * *

><p>Never, ever in his life had Tsuna ever entertained the thought that he might one day be stuck in the utter NIGHTMARE of riding in a carriage with the first generation of the Vongola family as well as his group of restless guardians.<p>

"Stupid Tsuna! I want more candy!" Lambo cried shrilly, waving his used lollipop stick in the air.

"Aho-sshi, you know there isn't any way for us to buy any of that here-" Gokudera lectured, only to be muffled when Yamamoto turned sharply around to look at something, his wrapped-up Shigure Kintoki smacking him across the back of his head.

"Oh, did I hit you? So sorry, Gokudera! I thought I saw a baseball* whizzing across from outside just now." He apologized sheepishly.

"Now, you…" He hissed (It is in literal translation, オマエ,ナ….")

Tsuna was barely even listening anymore. How'd he get himself into this situation?Oh, that's right. He suggested this 'd devised a plan to go to Giuseppe, where they were last seen in the public eye, and attract attention, alerting the enemy that they were there. On the surface, as much as Giotto and his guardians knew, they were searching for the clear pacifier with "Giotto's campanile" being the first spot in their search.

At first, they were hesitant to comply, their reason being that Giotto was really busy with his work these days and had no time for 'playing around', but then Giotto agreed and said he could meet with the boss of an allied family there.

Well, that was the plan…

…But he was starting to regret his decision surrounded by really noisy children and irritated guardians.

Hours more of sitting in a rowdy carriage with a black-haired baby on the roof (go watch the Reborn OVA, Hibari has that habit), and they would soon be there. Keep your cool, Giotto.

"WAH! It's so tall!" Lambo's eyes were shining with awe. "Alright! The great Lambo-san shall be the first to reach the top!"

Tsuna freaked when Lambo dashed into the campanile, away from the group. "Hora, Lambo! Don't run off!"

"Go stop him, Lampo. Don't you remember the arrangement?" Knuckle stared straight at Lampo, who was yawning.

"Ore-sama? But I'm a lord, doing something like chasing after a brat, it's beneath me-" He faltered when G nearly rammed his fist into Lampo's ribs. "Okay, okay, I get it. Geez." Lampo started walking quickly over to the campanile.

"Problematic kids, the both of them are." G said. Well, Tsuna wasn't really sure who said that, because all their capes/mantles and flaring trousers were obstructing his view and rubbing against his face. Not that it was that big of a deal, but it was starting to annoy Tsuna.

Giotto, sensing Tsuna's discomfort, picked up the little tot and lowered him onto his shoulder. "GWAHH! P-primo!" Something about this pose struck Tsuna with deja vu. Oh yeah, Reborn was always either sitting on his head or his shoulder, right? The Arcobaleno seemed to be into that.

"So…um, this is…Giotto's campanile?" He asked, fidgeting in his anxiety to jump off the First's shoulder. He was being treated like a baby by the First. The First, dammit!He shouldn't trouble his ancestor unnecessarily.

"Mm-hm."

-30 minutes later-

"Enjoying the view, Tsunayoshi?" Tsuna nearly wet his pants (if he had any, Kufufu) when Mukuro and Chrome sneaked up behind him.

"Mukuro?" Tsuna cried.

[Somewhere far away, Reborn sneezed. "Ugh. Dame-Tsuna must be stating something obvious again."]

"Oh, uh, weren't you talking to Daemon earlier?"

Mukuro crinkled his nose in a regal manner. "Hmph. That man, asking me to associate myself with him is impossible, Vongola."

"Ahahaa… I know you don't like Daemon Spade, Mukuro, but we can't tell Giotto that he may be betrayed in the future, or cast suspicions on that."

Mukuro didn't even get the chance to answer, before the whole building shook, and Tsuna's intuition sparked.

"Oh no! It's them!"

Ropes dangled from every window in the tall tower, and black-clad assassins climbed down each rope.

"Where's the sky arcobaleno?" A voice that literally held a smirk asked.

Giotto cursed. "Lampo, grab the kids and run!"

"If it isn't Vongola the First. Well, seems like I have the time to play with you today, so if you please, follow me!" The man in the steel hat ran out the entrance.

"Leave this to us! Go after the man with the steel hat!" Tsuna yelled. The First Generation hesitated, but turned their backs and ran in pursuit of the man with the steel hat.

"Tenth, don't use your flames!" Gokudera called from a perch.

"But Gokudera, these guys are strong! And besides, I won't use my life flame as much as I can. I'll just use the Dying Will flame!"

"Tenth, I don't think it works that way!" Gokudera shouted back, but was distracted when an assassin lunged at him with a poisoned knife."I don't think you have the luxury of chit-chat, kid."

"You…" Gokudera seethed angrily. He immediately reached into his pouch again, drawing out a few sticks of dynamite.

'Where on earth did he get that?' Tsuna thought.

"Come with us, sky child." Tsuna had barely noticed the gloved hand that reached out to grab him, but at the last moment he jumped away, back grazing the floor. He readjusted his cloak and ran. He needed to get somewhere else so that the battles wouldn't drag someone else into them.

He immediately halted in his tracks when he saw the familiar floral print skirt billowing in front of him.

"E-elena-san?" He stuttered. "What are you doing here? It's not safe!"

Elena thought that Tsuna was being ridiculous. She saw him as a baby, after all. This battlefield was no place for kids. Thinking quickly, Elena scooped Tsuna into her arms and held him away from the attacker protectively.

"Hurting children, what do you think you monsters are doing?" Elena yelled at the assassin, who momentarily froze in confusion.

She sprinted down the stairs of the tower with Tsuna. Besides the occasional explosions, it was silent enough that Tsuna could only hear the wild thumping of Elena's heart as she buried him in her bosom, and the clacking of her heels as she ran down the steps.

"Elena-san, you have to let me go! He'll hurt you!" Tsuna struggled about in the woman's grasp. The assassin was still hot on their heels and could catch up any moment now-he must've been the worst out of the rest, but fast enough for a lady in heels.

The miracle he'd prayed for had arrived. A stray dynamite flew through the window (tsk Gokudera, stop destroying historical monuments) and exploded in the assassin's face, effectively knocking him out, but not before he drew forward and threw the knife towards Elena.

"ELENA-SAN!" Tsuna screamed. The knife pierced her chest somewhere below her collarbone, splattering Tsuna's hair and face with blood. The knife stuck out right next to Tsuna's face as she fell backwards onto the floorboards. He pried his way out of her now slackened grip.

"Oh no…" he rasped. Her eyes were wide, breaths strained and coming out in huffs. Her ribs must've been broken, and now she was suffocating. "Hang on!" he told her, expecting no response as he pulled out Ryohei's box.

_"Oi, Sawada, Elder Pao Pao said the future me left this behind, but I still extremely don't know how to use it!" _

_"Wh-I thought Reborn wouldn't allow us to bring any box weapons back? But why are you passing it to me? It's kind of hard to hide it in my cloak, too."_

_Tsuna asked curiously. "He said you'll be able to use it in an extreme situation!" Ryohei flashed him a grin._

Tsuna pulled out the Vongola ring, and clutching it in both hands, he lit it up. 'This is a strange flame," he thought, looking at the orange flame that seemed to have a soft glow and a transparent shine at the same time.

'Well then, here goes nothing.' He thrust it into the box. It burst open and out popped a…spatula? At least, it looked like one. 'Oh, that's right…it was a healing item.' He recalled the embarrassing time Future Ryohei healed his wounds.

As he clutched in his hand, wielding it as if it were a large butcher's knife, he could feel it trying to sap out his life flame, which he kept trying to hold back, but goodness, it was probably as hard to control as the first time he used the X-Gloves: Version Vongola Ring. It felt like when your fingers were burnt, and the raw, pink flesh that was semi-healed had nylon threads wound loosely around it, tugging painfully between intermissions.

He used it to touch her back where the bones had snapped. 'No…it's no good…the knife pierced her lung.'Tsuna thought, using his free hand to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

'This may help…' He allowed a bit of his life flame to flow freely into the…spatula.

"Hoh, are you sure you should be doing that?" A sickeningly familiar voice called from the window. Tsuna's head snapped up. An assassin leaped through the window, landing into a pose on one knee. However, the face wrap had unwound and he was now wearing a swirly-patterned steel hat.

"You're…but- the Primo and the others-"

Pleased to say they're only fighting a puppet." He replied calmly.

"Good day to you, Sky Child." The man tipped over his steel hat, and bowed his head of long silver locks a little. "Now, if you'd just come with me…"

"Never." Tsuna growled, and wait-growled?

"Natsu!" Tsuna yelped. "Gao!" The sky lion tossed something at him. "My mittens?" he said. "They've shrunk too? How?"

"Hnhn, how cute." The man said, that repulsive grin of his growing ever wider. He pointed his stick-shaped thing at Tsuna and it's spikes shifted like gears, blades flying towards the baby. "Natsu!" The lion quickly turned into a cloak which Tsuna wrapped around himself, making the projectiles clatter harmlessly to the floor.

Tsuna was about to ask Natsu to give a roar of flames, when he froze.

"So naive, so naive." (A/N: BIG HINT!)

Green particles from the hat were cascading over his face and seemed to sink into his skin… he felt this prickly feeling all over, and he couldn't move at all. "Gao!" Natsu growled, sensing something was wrong, but he suddenly returned back to the ring. This feeling…

"NON-TRINISETTE!" He realized in horror. "You guys aren't from this time!"

The other 7 also felt their strength nullifying. Gokudera spun around while Hibari tried to move freely as always, Yamamoto tried to swing his sword with much difficulty, Chrome and Mukuro stood rooted to their places (they were the second closest to the radiation) and Lambo could not move, the helmet on his head blocked out most of him, though.

They looked back to see their leader picked up roughly by the cloak.

"Got you." The man said, throwing Tsuna into a rectangular reinforced steel cage. "OW!"

"Everyone!" Tsuna cried, trying to break the bars of the cage, but failing to do so, because his fists had no more strength. He struggled, but the man only smirked at his weak fidgeting.

"Juudaime!" "Tsuna!" "BOSS!" They couldn't do much as the man in the steel hat and his assassins strode off, Tsuna in tow.

"DAMMIT!" Gokudera cried, slamming his tiny fist on the floor in frustration. Chrome was being consoled by Mukuro, and Hibari seemed to be thinking about something. Yamamoto was staring at the ground, but you could see the creases on his forehead.

At this perfect timing,The First Generation family came back huffing and panting. "What happened to the assassins?"

Gokudera's fists were shaking. "Juudaime…they got away with him." He said, teeth clenched.

The First Generation were shocked by the news. "Oh, Dio… " Giotto gasped. "Nufufufu…and you told us to leave it to you." Daemon's taunt seemed to hit a sore spot, and Hibari immediately sprang around with his tonfas.

"Say anymore and I'll bite you to death."

"Why didn't you stop him?" G shouted.

"We extremely couldn't move!"

"So says the one who couldn't hold off the mad hatter! And how the hell did we know they would have Non-trinisette!" Gokudera yelled in retaliation.

"Non-trinisette?" Alaude asked suspiciously. "I've never heard of that."

"Kufufufu…how would you? It's an ore only discovered in the future."

"Future?" Asari said, blinking.

Giotto's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the babies again. "Explain. And this time, I want the whole truth."

Daemon looked so damn smug- "Oh God! Elena!" He rushed to the spot where grey curls peeked from a corner.

Along the road, the horses were pulled to a stop beside a carriage on the road. They neighed loudly as the riders hopped off and boarded the carriage. It was more of a coach, really.

"Take us back to the fort." The man in the steel hat ordered. "Yes, Mr. Jaggerface!"

The man now known as dangled the cage in front of his face, emitting groans from the baby trapped inside as his head was knocked against the surfaces of the cage.

"Uncomfortable, are we?" He sniggered. Tsuna glared at him with as much force as he could.

"How did you get your hands on the Non-trinisette?" The man's smile thinned a bit. "I don't believe you're at liberty to ask any questions, Sky Child." He opened up his hand to reveal a fistful of Non-trinisette. The pain was almost unbearable now. "This is all I have anyway, a weakened version."

"For every positive there must exist a counterpart to balance the equation. There is another me, the one that gathered the Arcobaleno, the one known as Mr. Checkerface…and where there is one to protect and create, there must be one to destroy…" Tsuna just stared at him drowsily, hardly understanding what he was blathering about.

"Did you know? It was I who brought the clear pacifier back to this time…" Hearing no response, he continued. "It's right…here."

He put the cage down at an angle and Tsuna could see the object that was dangling before them. It was a clear glass bauble, attached to a round handle. It was the clear pacifier, the last thing before he finally fainted from exhaustion.

* * *

><p>So there you have it. Well, I cut out all the unnecessary crap.<p>

I might add a flashback of the First Generation's fight next chapter.

So until then! Bye!


	12. Overload

Hi!

I'm back again! Haven't written in a month now, and if you care to know what happened, read the segment at the very bottom. But first, I shall respond to your reviews.

**(to Corvino the VII):** Lol, I would never torture readers like that. They are, after all, what keeps FF going. And how could you say that ; _ ; . It was just your opinion, but the anime was great too. At least I find the art, well, less sketchy.

**(to hiyomi):** Yeah, I didn't want Elena to be the cardboard character put in there for the sake of tying it to the manga.

**(to xxaikixxeden):** If you thought I was cruel to Tsuna in the last chapter, wait till you read this one.

**(to LAMBObsessed):** Wish granted, ha. Well, thank you. As for the "blood of the vongola", which one? There are quite a few that come up on the search.

Shan't hinder you with more text. Enjoy!

* * *

><p>It was dark. Tsuna weakly padded his way around the damp enclosure, and his eyes looked up at the metal bars which caught the faint light and reflected dimly.<p>

The baby crawled up to the bars and stuck his head through.

"Is there someone there?" He called softly, before coughing violently from the after-effects of using his flame, coupled with the exposure to Non-trinisette.

"H-hello?" He tried again.

He let out a sigh and slumped back down when there was no reply.

"Yo, who's this?" He let out a startled 'eep!' when two yellow eyes appeared behind the bars.

"H-hello." He managed, trying to sit up again.

Then he could slightly see the figure's full face, and she smiled at him.

"Hello. My name is Mahlia, but you can call me Cuore."

"H-hai, Cuore-san. I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi." (A/N: Really, Tsuna shouldn't be so trusting.)

"Hey, you have that pacifier too, right?" She asks curiously and hesitantly.

"Huh? What do you mean by, too?" Tsuna instinctively touches the Sky pacifier.

"I mean, I had this white-coloured one too, and I didn't know what it was for…" Cuore scratches her head.

"White…AH! You mean, you have the clear pacifier…" Tsuna was gaping like a fish.

"Oh, so you do know what it is!" Cuore said, clasping her hands together.

"Wait. But that would mean…you're the cure we're looking for?" Tsuna yelled. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Shh…not so loud. Are you forgetting we're within the walls of a prison?" Cuore put her finger to her lips as if instructing a child to be quiet. (Well, that's pretty relevant in this case.)

"A-ah, sorry."

"Never mind." She huffed.

"Erm, not to pry, but who are you?"

"I'm the head of Squad 5 of this base."

"EH? Then why did-why are you in this prison?" This was a little too much for Tsuna. Even Cuore turns out to be an enemy?

"Well, I was a spy, really. They caught me healing instead of killing the townsfolk and labelled me a traitor."

"O-oh…but that's…why are you trying to spy on them? Are you from the future too?"

"Future?" She looked at him as if concerned about his mental welfare. "What are you talking about? The reason I came here was to save my brother."

"Your brother? Is he in this prison too?" Tsuna asked.

"Nope. Curio is second-in-command." She answered lightly, and Tsuna almost face-landed on the damp prison floor.

"But he's not of his right mind now." Something dark and cold flashed through her warm yellow eyes. "That man- Jaggerface… he did something to Curio."

"The last thing Curio told me was to 'protect the clear pacifier'. Which brings me back to what I was going to ask you earlier. Do you know anything about this clear pacifier?"

"Well, most of us don't know much about the Trinisette, but the clear pacifier is like an anomaly, it being the eighth pacifier among the supposed seven colored pacifiers. Do you have the clear pacifier?"

"No, it's not with me. The other day, I caught a glimpse of it under Curio's robes. But he wouldn't respond to me even if I called him by his nickname."

"He wouldn't respond?"

"It's like he's a puppet, under the complete control of that man."

* * *

><p>"You just put the kid in the cell, huh?" a gruff voice asked. Curio turned around slightly, his expression aloof and guarded. The bells that dangled from ribbons sown to the tail of his longboat jingled with the movement. He didn't reply.<p>

"Hm…I'll take that as a yes. See you at lunch hall." He waved to Curio, who did not reciprocate.

Curio was an elusive figure that slinked in and out of meetings and other things, always somehow involved in important, top-secret jobs. His black longcoat had tails which reached the back of his knee, lines on his lapels embroidered in gold. His poise reeked of elegance and nobility, but his past was unknown to the rest of base. His yellow eyes stared wordlessly at the base officer.

And all of a sudden, the officer was at Curio's throat, holding him up by the collar. "Look here, brat…" he snarled. "I'm trying to be nice and all, so don't be so cocky, got it?" He snorted. "You think you're all that, being assigned to the ranks by the boss. But the higher you climb, the harder you fall."

Curio remained silent and expressionless. "Tch. You sicken me." He declared, dropping Curio on the ground and stomping off.

Then Curio's eyes softened, from a solid citrine yellow to liquid gold. "You think I don't sicken myself?" He whispered when the guard was out of earshot, as he picked himself up and dusted off his suit. Then his eyes hardened again, and he continued to stride in his original direction.

* * *

><p>Tsuna froze as a man in a black-and-gold coat burst in on their conversation. This was Curio? Cuore's supposed, previously loving sibling?<p>

"Jaggerface-sama wants answers. How do you unlock the rainbow?" All the while pointing a ray gun loaded with non-trinisette in Tsuna's face.

"Wait, Curio!" Cuore's calls could be heard from the other cell.

Oooh no.

* * *

><p>[One hour later]<p>

"Hang on, Tsuna!"

There was a muffled groan of a response from inside her bag as she bound down the hallways, praying to whichever deity who would be willing to forgive her now that no guards would come their way.

Cuore broke down the wall between her and Tsuna's cell using her powers and proceeded to stun her brother with his confiscated tazer-gun. (A/N: Good kids don't do so!)

Stuffing Tsuna, who looked worse for wear, into her bag, she was now running through the base with her brother's pass, looking for exit B3.

It was already a miracle how she hadn't bumped into any of her ex-colleagues by now.

And then when she burst into a training facility (to use as a short-cut), she found the reason why.

A baby, cloaked in purple had literally torn the base apart in his path, bashing enemies left and right.

"THE TRAITOR! She escaped!" A dreaded voice yelled, stubby fingers pointed at Cuore.

She dropped the satchel as she whipped out her scythe to intercept a blade swung her way. It wasn't much of a secret that all of Jaggerface's assassins were skilled at using flying blades and poison.

Tsuna tumbled out of the bag and left a bloody trail as he skid across the floor.

"Oof!" he groaned.

"Just a minute, Tsu!"

Tsuna watched through half-lidded eyes as Hibari was repeatedly swung into walls, but pounced back completely unscathed and retaliating with twice the number of hits.

It really reminded him of a certain helmet-wearing, sputtering baby. Oh, wait. Didn't Lal say they'd inherit abilities and traits from the Arcobaleno?

'Then, Hibari-san is already really good at fighting and now he has the invincible body-THAT'S CRAZY!'

Hibari had defeated three-fourths of all the guards and walked over to where Tsuna lay at the end of a streak of blood.

"Yo, Hibari-san." Tsuna greeted weakly, slightly delirious. He was an appalling sight, splotches of blood staining his clothes, face pale as sweat ran over the mark on his cheek. He still managed to give Hibari a wry grin.

Something in Hibari snaps as he pulls the baby into his arms. Tsuna's breath hitched as he tried to muffle a gasp of pain. Without any explanation, Hibari hoisted Tsuna into his arms and ran, bashing past all the guards in blind fury.

"W-wait…Hiba-*cough*-ri san, wha-bout…Cu-" he begins despite still in a daze at Hibari's display of power.

* * *

><p><em>"Tsuna, don't you know that you are Hibari's strength?"<em>

* * *

><p>When he almost reaches the backgates of the Vongola Manor, Tsuna stretches out a hand to touch Hibari's shoulder.<p>

"I-it's okay n-now, Hi-*wheeze*-bari-san." But his weak voice contradicts the statement, and Hibari is not paying him any attention, simply focusing on reaching the mansion.

* * *

><p>[AN: EXCUSE ME BUT I'M JUST TESTING OUT MY SKILL IN WRITING PANIC!]

"Hibari, where the hell were yo-TENTH!" Gokudera notices Tsuna-and he's over in a flash, clutching the limp form to himself in a firm grip with shaking hands, and he's yelling his throat out at the First Generation to send their best doctor over, quick, but it's the dead of night and there's nothing much they can do. The resident doctors' methods are too primal, too underdeveloped and never having seen such a thing- at which Gokudera growls, they have not the capacity to treat him.

The first thing Yamamoto spots is Tsuna's brown locks matted into a odd shape with sweat, patched with blood. Then he sees-hears the feeble breaths coming out of Tsuna in laboured, wheezing puffs choked by the sound of blood urging its way up his throat, and he gets a rough idea of what happened.

"Senpai, the box!" He shouts though well within hearing range, urging the yellow box into Ryohei's hands. "BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE IT!" And there's no extreme in that sentence, because his voice is that of desperation.

"Light up your ring and push it in!" Yamamoto presses, eyebrows pressed into a thin, serious line slightly above his wild brown eyes.

Ryohei does his best to comply, and the spatula's transfer of the flames goes along steadily. Tsuna's external woulds are beginning to seal up, but then as he coughs violently, pinprick dots of blood hit the floor. The pacifier flickers dramatically, and Chrome is scared, holding onto a smirkless Mukuro. Even a contract and illusionary-whatever it is Tsuna needs, wouldn't save him right now.

The First Generation is at a loss for words, hovering over the babies as if hesitating to help for fear of making Tsuna's delicate condition even worse.

His name repeats like a mantra in Tsuna's head, like a prayer for him not to go, but he feels so tempted to walk away, the light is fading from his eyes and it's getting harder to breathe. Who'd imagine he'd die from choking on his own blood?

Someone seems to realize this, and a pair of tan hands gently tilt his bloodied body to the side.

It doesn't help that the light is fading from his eyes.

"No! Juudaime!" Gokudera frantically searches the room. The First Generation feels his desperate wild stare on them, and lowers their heads.

"He's dying." Daemon states stiffly, making Hibari grunt in anger and leap forward.

"No, he won't." A calm, playful voice makes Hibari stop mid-leap.

* * *

><p><strong>(THE BELOW SEGMENT)<strong> which I'd really appreciate if you'd stop to read.

Heh, guess who it is.

On a side note, my "OC"s, Cuore and Curio, aren't exactly OCs. You'll see later. They both have blonde hair and yellow eyes. Sound familiar?

Anyway, I was up in the secluded mountains with no phone connection, no internet access and well, basically no way of connecting to the outside world for two weeks. I wanted to post this chapter before that, but I had to run off. And then, in the next week till now, I was kind of in a bout of depression. Really, how am I supposed to react when someone tells me the whole world has given up on me but the aforementioned speaker? Kneel at his feet and shout "my savior!"? This might seem melodramatic to you, but for me it is as real as it gets.

And I know no one should be listening to sad songs when depressed, but I did.

Well, you know how most Vocaloid songs are really depressing? Yes, there's that.

I was listening to the Little Mermaid by Luka, and really, it's so sad! *sniffle*. And then I just had to draw Tsuna in a PV of that. He *giggle* has never looked for feminine, with a PINK tail. There's surprisingly a lack of fanart for this.

And I was like, WHAT? They don't have a KHR fiction based on Meltdown by Rin?

How could there not be? Tsuna could easily be depressed and suicidal because he believed he has sinned.

Funny enough, it's one of the most popular songs.

**I will give cookies and fanart, whichever that person wants, to whoever would please write a KHR story based on Ura-omote lovers/Shinseki/Meltdown/Little Mermaid/Nazotoki/Just be friends. No joke.**

/watch?v=UZUQLtqUqQo&feature=BFa&list=FLsa5ny8bhVDJLE_3-NSEJjA&lf=mh_lolz

/watch?v=_JwTlBko2Z8&feature=BFa&list=WL06C098349D8CF88C&lf=mh_lolz

Oh yeah, and as a christmas present to you all, I shall reveal that I have written the following stories.

Sky's Shadow (YES THIS WAS OPTION B): AU. Iemitsu and Nana were not Tsuna's parents, and when he discovers this secret, he is forced to run from all he calls home.

Brand New Start: One-shot. On how Tsuna feels when authors put him in AUs or second chance fics. (you know, Giotto revives him and puts him in another parallel universe to start over.) To the song, A New Century, or 新世纪 by Len.

Carillion Della Disperazione: Daughter Of White: The third installment in the music box of despair series, with the main character being-you guessed it, Gokudera. Do note that all of the parts in the series are put to Vocaloid songs too. That's how I "roll", I guess.

The Universal Machine: (HUMOUR) Shouichi tests out a machine supposed to bring back TYL versions of themselves from the effects of the Ten-year-bazooka, but ends up in seriously whacked up parallel universes. Really, all he wants is to go home.

There's another two-shot revolving around Enma and Tsuna, but I'll keep that a secret for now.

2 new chapters of Through the Bazooka

1 new chapter for Destroying the Vongola

And lastly, I'm looking for a BETA READER. That's right. So if you're good in grammar and punctuation, and perhaps know a little little bit of Japanese, please respond.

Now, just 5 more reviews and I'll post the next chapter of Infante del Cielo.

Thanks for reading this and HAVE A GOOD DAY!


	13. Christmas Omake

Hi!

I have drawn a poster for Infante Del Cielo. It's in pencil though, but I'll do the line-art later. Maybe.

**If you want to see it, go to DeviantArt and search "Infante Del Cielo".**

Enjoy!

"Are they _all_ asleep yet?" Primo asked.

The assembled seven all nodded.

"Okay, now we leave the presents for them…right?" Asari piped up excitedly, eyes gleaming.

"Tch, you're more childish than them. Why are you getting so into this anyway?" G snorted.

"It's our first Christmas with kids under the roof, G."

"Okay, let's split. Assigned to the kid in our own rooms."

G and Giotto went down the corridor to Giotto's bedroom, while Alaude headed for the roof and Daemon attempted to track the two illusionists. Lampo yawned, grudgingly following after his boss. Knuckle walked towards the gym, unusually quiet.

Giotto opened the door a crack, peering inside. The shadows of the trees outside Primo's window cast shadows (really bad design, I mean assassins can climb the trees to get into his window right?) on the table where the three lay, bubbles of snot or saliva blowing out of their mouths.

"Isn't it creepy how they sleep with their eyes open? Ouch!" G slammed his knuckles into Lampo's head.

"Shh!" He hissed.

"Okay, let's just place the gifts on the table."

"You should just leave coal for this kid, Giotto." G wasn't even snickering.

"Don't be so mean, G. The orphanage's padre always gave out toys right? Even if we weren't part of his troupe."

"Deh."

"Okay, now let's go set up the mansion!"

The First Generation got busy in the kitchen, making some minute preparations for the dinner the next day.

"Nufufufu…"

"What is it, Daemon? Did you do something wrong?" Giotto always knew the hidden meanings in the man's chuckles. And this was the one he made just before he was about to slip away.

"What's that smell?"

Knuckle used a gloved hand to pry open the the oven's door (the wood one) and gasped. "Daemon, you extremely messed up with the turkey!"

Alaude simply rolled his eyes as if he weren't expecting anything less. "Degenerates always corrupt things, it'd be better if they just get lost."

Daemon's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I know of another bird we can roast."

"OKAY, STOP IT YOU TWO! All in the holiday spirit. It doesn't matter that we have one dish less." Primo said, smacking them.

Giotto lined the shelves with dried fruit, nuts, candles and sweets while G held the rickety ladder still. "Quit making sudden moves, Giotto. It's hard enough because you're so heavy."

"…Should I laugh?"

Finally, three painful hours later, the whole mansion looked festive.

"We did it, guys! All without the help of the maids and servants!" Giotto declared as the rest seated themselves in the main hall. The ceiling was lined with wooden six-point stars and the shelves near tapestries glowed softly. The table was set and a loaf of really hot bread sat waiting for the morning to come, and with it, breakfast.

Knuckle opened the door. "Ah, it's cold out!"

"It's snowing, too!"

"G, look! A shooting star! Let's make a wish!" Giotto cried, tugging Asari and G to the balcony.

"Oh, hell no! We're not doing this again! I still remember what happened the last time you wished on a star!"

"Loosen up a bit, G!"

"No wine this year though, we have children."

"Who says so?"

"HEY! Where'd you get that bottle!"

Mumblings could be heard from upstairs and a while later, all the babies were downstairs, some wide-eyed, some with eyes narrower than ever.

"Buon Natale children!"

"Primo, what are these?" He held up one of the loosely wrapped present the First Generation had left for them.

"It's Giotto, Tsuna. And those are your gifts. Go on ahead and open them!"

"For us?" Tsuna's eyes sparkled.

"Yep! The witch left them last night!"

Mere minutes later, the kids were holding up brand-new clothes. Tsuna had a mantle like Primo's and a pin-striped suit, while Ryohei had trousers and a white shirt. Hibari had a black suit much similar to the one he wore under his disciplinary committee cloak. Chrome had a plain purple dress that matched her eye colour, and Mukuro had a jacket disturbingly like Daemon's. Lambo had a blue jumper and Gokudera received a white shirt and black slacks.

"You should wear them. Not wearing anything but cloaks isn't good in this weather, because it's getting chilly."

"Wow! Thanks for considering us (not sure how this translates from japanese?) Giotto-san!"

"Like Asari said, it was the witch-"

"Tradition." Alaude snorted.

"Oh yeah, Gokudera-kun, do you have it?"

"Yes, Tenth!" He gave Mukuro a sharp look, who just shrugged and tapped the floor, revealing a large a large script.

"We wanted to write you guys a letter as thanks for everything."

"When you think about it, this makes it sound like you're saying goodbye."

"It does? HIEEEEE!"

"Your incessant whining is grating on my nerves, Tsunayoshi-kun." (Doesn't call him Vongola in front of the first) Mukuro said smoothly.

"I-in any case, I'll read it out…"

The letter was flowed with stuttered but sincere phrases of thanks about how Giotto and his guardians took them in, and how they protected them even though their explanations were far from satisfactory; their actions rowdy and blundering. Alaude and G looked completely emotionless at the start of the letter, but were making some sort of weird grimace towards the end as if keeping themselves from smiling or looking touched. Asari and Giotto however…

"THAT WAS SO SWEET! Come give me a hug!" He ignored a few indignant shrieks and loud protests as he drew them into a large hug.

"Aren't the letters kids write around Christmas time meant for their parents though?"

Daemon-being Daemon- had to go and make an inappropriate remark.

"If you ask me, that was really unnecessary and may have upset your parents, whoever they are."

"But that's the problem - no one asked you."

"."

"GUPYAH!"

At the bottom of the script, after paragraphs written in the unmistakable messy scrawl of Tsuna's (In the very least, he _tried_ to write cursive letters) were scribbled

a few signatures.

Chrome's was really light, and had some dots in between like she hesitated because she hadn't signed her name before. Yamamoto's was sloppy and looped carelessly, Hibari and Gokudera's kanji was written in a neat line like on the new year's tanabata, Lambo's was a sticky lollipop stain, Ryohei's was a like a dash of ink, and Mukuro had merely stabbed the paper till the holes resembled the character of his name.

It was later noticed that Hibari's signature was deeply indented into the paper, as if someone had forced his hand, and the side had a small blot of blood. Giotto shuddered when he pondered on the means through which Tsuna and the rest had coerced Hibari into signing the letter ("Your weak little feelings are not mutual, Sawada Tsunayoshi.").

A well-timed ball of snow appeared in a puff of smoke and promptly hit Tsuna in the face.

"GAH!"

"Tenth!" Gokudera scrambled to help Tsuna wipe the liquidy menace off his face.

"Gyahaha! Dame-Tsuna got hit by a snowball!"

"I think it's safe to say it's snowing on our side…"

"Haha! The kid is really amusing!"

The First Generation just watched on, stunned. "What just happened?"

The Tenth Generation were shocked by the spread before them. Spiced sausage, cornbread and other Italian Christmas dishes were laid on the white table.

The servants must've been shocked too. Who knew their masters were able to create such a feast by themselves?

"And so we toast- Buon Natale!" Giotto announced, holding up a glass of champagne.

"Buon Natale/ `! "

They said, clinking their glasses. Then they stooped lower to clink the babies' glasses. Even Alaude allowed himself a glass of wine for tonight.

"Lambo! Stop picking off my plate!" Tsuna held his fork in his right hand to stop Lambo from grabbing another piece of his.

"Lambo-san wants another meatball."

"Is that what you call this? Well, there's plenty of other food, Lambo, so you don't have to do that." Asari said to Lambo gently.

"Geez, you're being too soft to the kid." ( G uses "")

"How'd the witch know we're in the past, though?" Yamamoto piped up suddenly.

The First Generation perked up like rebounding darts.

"Geez, you're way too naive to believe such a thing exists." Gokudera admonished. (Coincidentally, he too used " .)

"Haha, Gokudera just said what G said!" Yamamoto pointed out oh-so-brilliantly.

And chuckles went round the table, some with Yamamoto, some _at _Yamamoto.

Let's just say the night was long and filled with warmth and merrymaking.

Oh who am I kidding? It was chaotic, messy, festive, and Vongola-style!

"HIEEEE! Gokudera-kun, don't blow up Yamamoto!"

This was slightly hard to write out and I spent the whole day thinking about it so I ended up being a day and a half late instead of one day late…oh well.

I hope you liked it and I wish you a merry christmas (I'm actually more focused on the new year though) and a pleasant new year.

Good night (it's really, really, late at night.)

Bye


End file.
